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Do you think that PC Donna De Freitas and DCI Chris Hudson make a good team? Do you think Donna was smart to stay in touch with Joyce, even though it was unprofessional at times? Why or why not? What do you make of the relationship between the detectives and the septuagenarians?
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Although Donna starts out texting with Elizabeth at the start of the book, she switches to Joyce later on (although when this switch happens isn’t 100% clear to me.) I think it was useful to both Donna and Joyce to stay in touch so they could check in with each other as to the status of their investigations. But it also serves as a crucial lifeline for Joyce when she contacts Donna for help because she thinks Elizabeth is in serious danger from Father Mackie.
I like to think that Donna may have stayed in touch with Joyce because she suspected something dangerous might happen to the septuagenarians given their somewhat reckless concern for their own safety. Donna was proven right. She doesn’t mince words when she thinks Joyce (and the gang) have done something stupid either. About the Father Mackie situation, Joyce writes in her journal “Donna was very angry…I told her I was sorry for lying, and she said that Elizabeth had been the liar, I had simply been a coward.”
As for the relationship between the detectives and the Thursday Murder Club I think it adds humour and dramatic friction to the storylines. That’s because their interactions often highlight how the four seniors are breaking the rules – and sometimes the law – to carry out their investigations. This not only puts Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron in danger, it puts the two detectives in danger as well.
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Most certainly. While I think Donna had some pretty selfish motivations at the start (she wants to be on the murder squad for her own personal ambition, to win all the glory of solving the murder herself) I think she comes to like and respect Chris. Although, she definitely does not respect his fashion sense or poor eating habits. I think she quickly realizes that he’s not dumb (she has a high opinion of her intelligence when she compares herself to other officers in the department) and he’s fair and unselfish (he gives her the opportunity to ask questions of a suspect right after they first meet when he doesn’t have to.)
They certainly back each other up and work well together when they are digging through the case files together or confronting the Thursday Murder Club about their choice not to tell them about the bones they dug up. The detectives also work well together when they are questioning possible suspects like Steve Ecran (at his gym) to inquire about Johnny Gunduz.
The fact that the pair get together for drinks several times outside of work and watch TV together also shows that they both maybe recognize that the other is a bit lonely. They definitely develop camaraderie and friendship outside of their professional working relationship and look out for each other. That’s definitely the situation by the end of the book when Donna invites Chris over to meet her mom, telling him to wear his nice shirt. (Was she intentionally setting the two of them up?)
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