Talk:Four Blind Mice

Reverting changes

I made some changes to clean up the plot section (and remove the {{plot}} tag) that was way too in-depth. The plot section now summarizes the plot instead of providing a blow-by-blow accounting. IP 153.29.176.61 attempted to revert these changes on 17 March 2011 with no explanation, but I have reverted this revision. Please discuss here if anyone disagrees. --Mûĸĸâĸûĸâĸû _(blah?) 11:12, 3 April 2011 (UTC)

Factual Errors

The article states "In each instance, the murderer's modus operandi involved painting the corpse blue", which is not true. The colors were alternated between red, white, and blue for each [b]set[/b] of murders. Since the murders Sgt. Cooper is framed for involved three ladies killed in one sitting and painted blue, and Detective Cross briefly mentions looking into the significance of blue, this might have caused confusion for some readers. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.5.59.140 (talk) 20:53, 27 June 2011 (UTC)

Also, General Hutchinson is [b]not[/b] the underlying mastermind behind the murders-by-frame of the former US servicemen. Hutchinson gave orders to troops in his command in the An Lao valley of Viet Nam to take aggressive actions which resulted in those troops committing war crimes. The situation got out of hand so his solution was to send the Three Blind Mice in to kill his own troops. However, this team of Army assassins ended up committing just as many atrocities as the troops they were deployed to stop.

Now move to the post-Viet Nam setting where the story takes place. The team of assassins are hired by persons unknown to them to frame the remaining An Lao servicemen. At the end of the novel, Cross discovers the mastermind is in fact Tran Van Luu, a former ARVN scout who had reported the atrocities to his immediate commander (Colonel Handler) and possibly others, but no official action was taking. Although not stated explicitly in the novel, this is probably why Hutchinson sent the assassins back in 1967, since using the Army's judicial system to bring the men to justice would inevitably expose his own role in their actions. Luu finds great irony in using the army assassins to finish the work they started in 1967. The novel leaves open the question of what Luu's plans for the team would have been had they not died in the firefight with Cross. Would they have also killed the General? Would they have been killed by Luu's gang, since they also were guilty of war crimes?

It can be easy to see why the General might be seen as a more central character than he is, since while Luu's murder's are taking place, he also sends his own team of killers after both Colonel Handler and Cross, but this is to cover up his role in 1967, not the current murders.

The novel contains at least two plot holes. The biggest one is that in multiple sections written in the POV of the Three Blind Mice, they mention that they have no idea why or who hired them. It seems incredible to think that after so many frame-ups and direct murders (at least six people are mentioned by name) this team is incapable of making any connections to Viet Nam, especially when they are framing the very same service personnel they were tasked with killing in 1967. A minor hole concerns the character of Marc Sherman. Ellis Cooper's prosecutor, after the trial is over in the first few pages, he has no other mention in the novel except to reappear with the three killers and be murdered by them at the start of the gunfight with Cross and Sampson. It is not clear what connection he had with the killers, if any, or why he would have been invited to join them at their cabin, or if his death at their hands was planned from the outset.