Bone Trope

[stevenpiziks]

I'm reading BARE BONES, one of the books in the series that the TV show BONES is based on. The book is decent, and makes rather better reading than the Kay Scarpetta books. (I stopped reading the Scarpetta books because all the main characters are always angry at each other, and it really grinds you down.)
However, this particular BONES book makes use of a trope that I hate: the Interrupted Vacation.

 

This trope is always the same. Main character hasn't had a vacation in years.  MC makes Wonderful Vacation Plans. At the last moment (often when MC is heading for the door, suitcase in hand), the phone rings. It's the office. Some terrible event has taken place and MC must deal with it. In some variations, the terrible
event happens just before the MC is going to leave, and the MC tries to deal with the event in time to catch his/her vacation flight, almost always without success.

This trope shows sloppy writing. It's a poor attempt by the author to create conflict where none really exists. And the MC comes across as spineless. Anyone with a backbone would either 1) not answer the phone when she sees work is calling, or 2) say, "I'm on vacation. You'll have to find someone else."

In this particular novel, Temperence, the MC, is on a family picnic when the dog finds a bunch of half-buried bones. Temperence, who autopsies bones, whimpers--she's supposed to leave on vacation the next day. She has to identify these in time to catch her plane. And . . . bingo! They're bear bones, not human. But then
SHE STAYS TO DO MORE X-RAYS AND PAPERWORK. And, of course, an hour later (when she should have been long gone), she gets the news that a small plane went down in a fireball and they'll need her expertise to ID the victims. She'll have to put off the vacation further.

WTF? No, no, and no again. The moment she realizes the bones aren't human, she should say, "This isn't a murder case. Put these in the fridge and I'll get to them when I get back. Seeya!" And even if she were around for the plane wreck, she should be saying, "I'm on freaking vacation--OFF THE CLOCK. You'll have to find someone else."

On top of it all, Temperence's boyfriend Ryan is so totally understanding. Although they've already paid for the flight and the rental on a beach house, he seems completely content to fly down to her house instead and spend the week on her couch, watching TV and eating junk food and making fond love to her in the evenings. Never a single word of complaint or regret over a vacation it took them three years to arrange.

Any of you buying this? 'Cause I'm not. The conflict of the Interrupted Vacation invariably comes across as completely artificial, manufactured for the sake of having conflict. The case Temperence investigates is quite interesting in its own right and holds enough mystery to keep the reader's attention. Dump the vacation subplot! Ryan can simply appear on Temperence's doorstep for a surprise week-long visit. Since the main
subplot of the book seems to be Temperence trying to figure out the nature of her relationship with Ryan, there'd be plenty of conflict to work with there.

That's the main problem with the Interrupted Vacation trope, incidentally. It's artificial, clearly dropped in to create some fake conflict because the writer was too lazy or sloppy to come up with any =real= conflict. The Interrupted Vacation is not believable because it's so easy to solve, and it ruins an otherwise fun read.