Stork Boy
-
-
4.6 • 5 Ratings
-
-
- $4.99
-
- $4.99
Publisher Description
San Diego Child Abuse Investigator Bo Bradley agrees to accompany significant other Dr. Andrew LaMarche on a two-week business trip to France. Bo, who lives with a bipolar disorder, looks forward to relaxing in a tiny Alpine village, painting scenery and dodging Andy's frequent proposals of marriage. She's packed enough meds to last for months, and even though she doesn't speak a word of French, somebody at work gave her an old Berlitz language text to use. What could go wrong?
The dead man found in her back yard with a peculiar iron spike buried in his neck the morning after her arrival is unfortunate, but it has nothing to do with her. Or does it? Bo fights an awareness that it does, which makes no sense. And what about the strange old nun the police bring in to translate as they interview Bo? Sister Jean-Noëlle's English is pathetic, but as she leaves she whispers a line from Hamlet. Why is the old woman pretending to be something she's not?
Bo inadvertently uncovers one incomprehensible clue to the murder after another as she juggles her relationship with Andy, a troubling Interpol agent, Russian icons and a secret burial during which everybody in town except Bo knows to stay off the streets. Until the moment when it becomes clear that she hasto identify the killer because a fragile boy's life hangs in the balance.
Out of her element, lacking any legal authority and frantic as time runs out, Bo faces the most complex and hopeless case of her career. And it's not even her case. Except she knows it is.
Customer Reviews
Stork Boy
A lovely, well-told story that continues Bo Bradley’s tale.
Bo Bradley is back, but not in San Diego
Bo is a bipolar I, primary presenting symptom is mania. She seems to function without continual medication.
I’m a bipolar (NOS), at least in DSM-IV-R, primary presenting symptom is depression. I am motivated to stay on meds.
Stork Boy has been tentatively dx’d as “Bipolar I with manic features, possibly Schizoaffective Disorder, Bipolar Type.” He doesn’t like the meds he seems to have had before.
I worked with a woman of the latter dx. She was hella brilliant, and experienced synesthesia.
Our brains work in much the same way—bright, thought processes not understood by the non-neurodiverse, creative, and Wanting to Know the answers to mental puzzles. Bo’s work uses all those, and all are demonstrated in this novel.
Certainly there is a murder and mystery surrounding it—murder in the present day, the first night Bo arrives in France, outside the house exchange she’ll be in for two weeks, with her lover Andy, a pediatrician/pediatric specialist. Did you know she doesn’t speak French? Oh, dear.
The murder case is convoluted, but because Stork Boy is different, often wanders at night, and has a record of two petty non-violent charges, conclusions are jumped to him being the prime suspect.
Bo becomes interested in Stork Boy because she feels the injustice of someone like her—neurodiverse—being pegged as the convenient culprit just because of mental differences. She sees a bit of herself in him. She sees the unusual way they each approach artistic composition, once she’s seen his work in a cave. Once he’s run from the police, he stays up in a cave with no warm clothes, no heat, and no food. There’s about to be a freezing rain, another reason Bo wants to find him.
There are several secondary characters well-fleshed out, and a local family who reminds one of the Starkadders of Cold Comfort Farm.
Lots of plot twists!