Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

PATRICIA HIGHSMITH – THE BLUNDERER – 1956

A small, I mean short, crime story, a page turner, about three men who are all unworthy of living in a humane world, but since the world is not humane they are right in place.

One is a real criminal, supposedly impotent, married to a harpy who – in fact which would be better fitting here – he hates because she is humiliating him, betraying him, you name it you have it. He is a book bee, one of those people who are collecting and gathering books, mainly second hand and out of print, in order to deliver them – at a price of course – to those who want the rare gems in booklore that only a book bee can find and circulate.

He wants to kill his wife and he does it.

The second is a lawyer, not in criminal law for sure, but so naïve and idiotic that he falls in love and marry a psychotic person who little by little – like a spider in her web – wraps him up in her silk out of the world for personal consumption only, and humiliation, criticism, mental and psychological violence are the everyday and every night last supper of farewell till the next evening when she will start all over again: carry your cross to the top of the calvary on Golgotha and that will never end because every morning you resuscitate to be available on the following night. He wants to kill her but he is of course unable to do so. He is innocent in acts though not in intentions.

The third one is a cop who decides to join the two cases because of some similarities and to get the two men down for the murder of their wives, even if in the second case the autopsy and the coroner’s office have concluded it is a suicide.

Tactic, if any? Politically and police wise unethical and incorrect: brutalize the two to bring them to their limits and confront them to see what happens. The book bee is a vicious obnoxious vengeful man. You can imagine when he discovers, thanks to the cop, the other one is an impotent copy cat. His own impotence comes back to the front directly in the limelight. The second is totally incompetent at working with other people, understanding their motivations and preserving himself. He falls in all the traps of the cop and he goes through an ordeal till the bitter end.

The only winner is the cop. But that you will have to discover yourself.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU