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 In this fifth Saz Martin mystery novel, Stella Duffy’s dyke detective is forced to investigate her own past before secrets destroy her new-found happiness with lover Molly and new-born baby Matilda.
It has been a rough few months since their baby was born – Molly’s father has died and Molly’s mother seems to have given up hope. Saz and Molly aren’t shagging – but what couples with newborn babies do? What with the nighttime feeds and lost sleep?
Into this already stressful atmosphere enters Will Gallagher, an old school friend who explains that Janine, a girl they routinely victimised in high school, has contacted him and threatened to go to public. Saz and her fellow schoolyard bullies are forced to re-unite and re-open old wounds.
Will is now Ross Gallagher, a popular television actor who is about to get married, and he has the most to lose if bullies Will, Saz, Andrea and Daniel’s shared past is revealed in the tabloids.
Will/Ross feels least responsible for the effect of the group’s actions and, in a similar fashion, his high-school sweetheart Andrea recalls the event as something the others did, although she had originally suggested and encouraged the ‘prank’. Daniel seems unaffected by it all, but Saz senses he is more invested in the situation than he leads them to believe.
The past that Saz shares with her fellow schoolyard bullies is so ugly that each of them has found their own ways to justify their actions.
Duffy’s novel takes an original angle on the detective genre, by making the mystery one of a deeper, internal, psychological investigation of self. Her ability to develop characters is nothing short of brilliant and she wonderfully constructs clear pictures of her characters’ perspectives. This aspect of the story is perhaps the most exciting.
Duffy is able to show just how different people, with different values and priorities, fictionalise the events in their lives to make them fit into who they believe they are.
Each of the bullies now has a respectable façade, not much different to the pretence of goodness they used on teachers and parents during their reign of terror in high school. The only difference now, is that they all seem to believe the hype and try to convince themselves that they have managed to evolve into well-mannered adults who have paid adequately for their wrongdoing.
Duffy’s characterisation asks us how much do we change from savage teenagers who only behave when the teacher’s watching? And she raises the question of how we cope with the parts of ourselves we do not like. Do we embrace them as an asset like the way Ross Gallagher plays the lovable rogue to popular acclaim on the TV? Or do we become born-again and spiritual like Andrea, absolving ourselves of any past sin and moving on? Or do we have a mid-life crisis like Daniel and begin dating a girl half his age? Or do we take on the role of martyr like Saz and carry the burden of guilt for everyone?
Duffy holds her cards till the last minute, and the secrets from Saz’s past are slow to reveal themselves as she keeps you guessing while the tension builds, chapter by gripping chapter. In what follows, Duffy explores what lies in the mind of the bully, the ways in which people wield power and the consequences of cruelty.
Mouths of Babes by Stella Duffy, published by Serpents Tale, 2005, distributed in Australia and New Zealand by Allen & Unwin.
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Butch babes and bully boys
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