The Cold Dish

The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

SPOILERS AHEAD!

A quick, fun read. I am spectacularly bad at guessing who the villain is in mysteries, and this one is no different. I love Walt and Henry's relationship, and how close Walt is to his whole team. There's definitely some funny moments in there, too.

I'm a fan of the TV show based on these books, so of course, thing felt weird to me at times. It almost like the way it feels when you grow up going to Disneyland, know it like the back of your hand, and then visit the Magic Kingdom at Disney World. Everything looks kinda the same, and has the same vibe, but things aren't quite in the right spots, and look a little just different enough to feel "off," and you spend a bit of time confused and lost. I know Walt, but this Walt is slightly different. I know Vic, but this isn't the same Vic (how exactly does one "look Italian"?). Cady doesn't even make an appearance in the books. Branch doesn't even exist, though I think he was partially based on Turk. I definitely want to keep reading the books, so hopefully over time, the characters will solidify in my mind as their book selves, separate from their TV versions.

There were a couple other things that threw me off. For one, Walt spends a lot of time thinking about how attractive the women around him are. I don't see how that's particularly important to the story, and seems to imply that Walt cares more for appearances than character. I feel like that's NOT what the author's trying to say, but he (the author) is so fixated on having his female characters be both attractive and also attracted to his male lead that he needs to have it mentioned continuously. I also didn't appreciate seeing Walt ignore when a woman literally says, "Don't touch me," and continue to hug her. Whether it's because he thinks he knows better than her and she actually wants to be hugged, or becuase hugging her will help assuage his own guilt and make him feel better, it doesn't really matter. It's not okay. Especially considering that this book is centered around a rape case, in which one of the prime points of contention is whether the girl involved could consent to the sexual acts.

The other thing that bothered me was the depth of Vonnie and Walt's feelings for one another. Before she dies, Vonnie says she loves Walt, but they had barely been spending time with one another. They had one, maybe two dates. I can believe that they had started down the path that could eventually lead to love, but here is no way I believe they actually loved each other at that point. Walt's reaction to her death seemed a little disproportionate to his relationship with Vonnie, but i can understand that trauma affects people differently. He had been thinking of actually being with this woman, the first since his wife's death, and been in the room when she killed herself. Needing some time to himself seems rational.

Especially considering he had been in major mourning up until recently for his wife, who, come to find out, hadn't been insanely in love with him, like she is in the TV show. Part of my shock at book!Walt talking about how hot all the women are around him is because TV!Walt deeply loved his wife and was still mourning her intensely when the show began. Granted, we don't know what's going on inside TV!Walt's head, but he doesn't seem interested in even looking at other women until much later in the show.

All in all, I'll happily keep reading these, but hopefully the casual sexism will decrease as time goes on, and I'll be able to separate the book characters from the TV characters more easily.

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