The Rag and Bone Shop - Realistic Fiction, Mystery

Robert Cormier told an interviewer from the School Library Journal, "I'm very much interested in intimidation and the way people manipulate other people. And the obvious abuse of authority." In The Rag and Bone Shop, a mystery tale in the realistic fiction genre, he explores these themes. To do this he tells a tale of a murder investigation in third person by two different characters, Jason and Trent.

Jason is a twelve year old boy who doesn’t fit in with kids his own age, but prefers the company of younger children. He struggles with school and often feels stupid. On the first day of summer vacation after 7^th grade, he visits the home of a boy his age and works on a puzzle with the boy’s seven year-old sister, Alicia. She is later found dead from a blow to the head. There is no physical evidence to point to the murderer and there is political pressure being applied by the grandfather of one of Alicia’s classmates, a U.S. Senator. Unfortunately, Jason was “the last person to see her alive” and with the pressure to solve the crime mounting, the detective relies on his gut, honing in on Jason as the likely killer.

Trent, a top-notch interrogator who has never failed to elicit a confession, is called in to interrogate Jason. He has recently lost his wife and is becoming burned out and a little haunted by his work. He sees this interrogation as a way to gain favor with the Senator. He interrogates Jason without his parents present under the pretext “helping the investigation”. As the interrogation progresses, he realizes that Jason is not guilty, but continues to push for a confession.

Cormier does a good job at showing how people can be intimidated, manipulated and bullied into admitting almost anything, nearly believing it themselves. Through Jason, he also shows how the result of intimidation can last beyond the interrogation itself.

I really liked the way you saw the events unfold from both Jason and Trent’s point of view. The book kept me glued to it and I was unprepared for the ending which stayed with me for several days. I would recommend this book to high school students especially those who are fans of crime stories and television crime dramas.

I believe Trent’s description of the interrogation room would be a good way to interest students in the book. He writes, “The office to which Braxton led him was perfect. Small and cluttered and claustrophobic. No windows, which eliminated the necessity of drawing the shades. No lamps on the desks, the light coming directly and harshly from a ceiling bulb. No air conditioning, either. Trent, in fact, felt a slight wafting of heat as he entered the room. Two desks and a filing cabinet took up most of the space, which meant that he and the suspect would be in close proximity, their knees almost touching as they sat in the two chairs arranged opposite each other. That was the intent, of course, to conduct the interrogation in a small space with no room for the suspect to be comfortable.”