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Joyce says, “I am very happy to be overlooked, and always have been. And I do think perhaps that will be helpful in this investigation.” Do you agree? What insights and advantages does she gain by not calling attention to herself, and staying under the radar?
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I think people seriously underestimate her which means she is keenly able to observe and analyze their behaviours and learn their strengths and weaknesses as a result. She has a great ability to predict people’s actions as a result. She becomes adept at predicting what Elizabeth will do. She knows what her daughter is thinking. She guesses at where Bernard is headed and tries to save him in her way. And she figures out that Bogdan killed Tony Curran.
By staying under the radar, but sharing a journal, we get to know Joyce’s secrets too. This is helpful to Richard Osman because he can share her observations and opinions in her journal entries which gives us, the reader, more insight into what is going on. She often becomes the reliable source of information for the reader as she deducts and cycles through all the clues. (For example, she explains at length how Peter’s drug smuggling flower operation works, and how Jason uses Tinder to connect with “the killer.”)
Joyce admits to the reader (via her journal) that she also uses being underestimated as a way for her to get what she wants. She ingratiates herself with others precisely because they underestimate her abilities. But she doesn’t underestimate herself. Of her husband Gerry, she says when she first met him at a dance: “From the moment I laid eyes on him, he didn’t stand a chance. The lucky thing.” So she knows she is a formidable force and can affect outcomes when she puts her mind on a problem. She doesn’t use this superpower as much in this book as she does in later ones.
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