One of the mystery writing tropes which drives me nuts is the moment in a book where the villain feels compelled to explain everything he’s done.
Usually this happens when the protagonist is helpless, at the complete mercy of the bad guy. The protagonist often says something like, “I guess you’ve been very clever in your plans for world domination. Why not tell me how you did it?”
The villain then launches into a long, complicated explanation of his plans, his dreams, how he trapped the protagonist, how he’s going to rule the world, his personal reasons for wanting to rule the world, some stock tips, and a prediction on the World Series. Long enough, in other words. for help to come for the protagonist.
Why? Why would a bad guy do this? Here he/she is, at the brink of success after years of planning and hard work and drudgery, after taking enormous risks. Within a stone’s throw of the fruition of all they hoped and dreamt. Why take the time to explain it all?
Real life bad guys don’t do that. When they get their adversaries in a hopeless position, they merely say “Sucks to be you,” and they shoot them. Dead.
If they even say that.
I came across one of these scenes in an otherwise good book, Michael Connelly’s first novel The Black Echo. Harry Bosch, who would go on to become an iconic character in the mystery genre, is wounded in a tunnel, alone with the bad guy. The bad guy has an automatic rifle trained on Harry. Harry is seriously wounded and unarmed. He’s no threat. The bad guy debates whether he should just let Harry bleed out or whether it might be smarter to kill him outright.
Then he and Harry engage in several pages of “why did you do it?” Pages.
It spoiled an otherwise realistic, gritty novel. Up to this point Harry was the quintessential tough cop, Vietnam Vet, always in trouble for stepping over the line. The action was believable, nothing made you think twice.
Till this scene at the end of the book. Then suddenly the very bad guy turns into a Batman villain who feels compelled to justify himself to a person he’s about to kill. Which, of course, gives the cavalry time to show up and kill the bad guy.
I’m sort of spoiling it for you if you haven’t read the book. Since it’s been out since the 80s, you’ve had your chances.
Connelly would go on to write 70 plus best sellers. I haven’t read another, though I bought 3 of his first Bosch novels after I saw him at the Mystery Writer’s Conference at BookPassage. He is an engaging personality and his method of research is impeccable–as you can tell from his first book, which is stuffed with accurate police procedure and life lessons.
Which made the “Let me tell you how I did it” even more frustrating.
As I said, I have two more of Connelly’s oeuvre in my “to be read” stack. So eventually I will read another one (these books are 400+ pages long, so they’re not undertaken lightly) eventually. My hope is that we don’t get more of this nonsense.
And, by the way, Mr. Connelly is so phenomenally successful that he doesn’t care what one obscure wannabe mystery writer thinks of his first book. I’m pretty sure of that.
Mark Bruce, Writer 