I will say this, too, that I found a bit hard to digest in this book: I don't have a problem with Harry grieving, I'll start with that, it was necessary, it is raw and it is painful. I wished we had seen a little less of "Karrin is dead and oh how much this hurts me" and more "Karrin is dead and that's unfair because Karrin was x, y and z" I mean, he tells us more times how wonderful Michael is in any of the books than he thinks about Murphy in this one, when it'd be the appropriate book to do it. There's a lot of things that you feel when you lose someone, yes, guilt, anger, denial, but also longing, and the memories of the best about them replay in your head making you miss them more, want them more. I felt there wasn't enough longing or enough memories. And I still can't believe we didn't learn when her birthday was in a full year of story.
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I think I can take a stab at that from my own experience sadly. Harry is suffering from serious PTSD, bad enough that the whole city came down around his ears and lots of people died violently, that is bad enough, but the woman he loved was shot and died in his arms. He has PTSD from
that! That vision plays over and over in his head, he is trying to function, and he is sort of functioning, but the damnest things will trigger that horrible film clip in his head. It will be a long time before he heals enough to where the event becomes an old film clip in his head that he can move past and go on to remember the good stuff.
We don't know Justine's "solution" was a lesbian... she could easily have been bi! I strongly suspect House Raith selects their "Does" for a strongly-middle Kinsey-scale score.
I think Thomas was pretty clearly established as straight, so "some guy" wouldn't much appeal to Thomas (while the "two girls" fantasy is among the very-most-popular amongst straight guys). Justine (and/or Nemesis) could just have been playing to that.
Seems to be the easiest/obvious explanation, tho: Thomas being straight (known) and Justine being bi (surmised) makes the "FMF" solution work better than the "MFM" solution.
How? It shouldn't be any different, it just seemed weird.
I can't say I flat out disagree with any of your specific points about deficits in recent books except maybe about Karrin's death. I didn't really like the idea of them being together. I didn't hate it. (If I was Jim, it would be Elaine, and she'd probably end up being Kumori or a Kumori fake out). I think Karrin had it mostly right in Proven Guilty except for thinking she would grow old with someone. I didn't think she should have counted on growing old when I read Proven Guilty. Point being, I don't think they were a good fit.
I agree with you, I also thought at the time that Murphy had it right when she turned Harry down in Proven Guilty. Good friends and loving each other as comrades in arms etc. was a good fit, but as lovers? No. Yes, her growing old as Harry stayed young and hardy is a very good reason from her point of view. Murphy always likes to be in the middle of any battle Harry was fighting. Not so much when she is 80 and he is in his prime or still considered a young wizard. just her ego alone wouldn't have been able to handle that. I don't think Harry saw that, but I think she knew that and was honest with him. I am not sure if Jim was merely giving into pressure from Shippers or if he had something else in mind. Actually I think he did, and at some point Harry is going to have another bubble burst and it will hurt. There are hints in 12 Months that though Harry may have or thought he truly loved Murphy, she didn't truly love him. She loved him, but not in the true love sense, that's why Harry isn't protected. It's hinted at in 12 Months, the debate Harry has with his ID, his ID questions whether or not what he and Murphy had was true love. In his fight with Mab, when Harry tells her that Murphy truly loved him, her answer was, "perhaps." Then she covers that by saying she didn't or doesn't have access to that part of Murphy's mind. You believe that? I don't, and since she said, "perhaps," Mab wasn't lying either
I'm not going to even suggest Karrin deserved to die, but I do think either that her character arc should have ended in death or a power up. It looks like we got both. I'm sure she's coming back. Almost certainly in the BAT.
The thing is, it got to the point where she didn't do much for the story, in my opinion. Once she was off the police force, I think Jim found it hard to find a good fit for her. Actually when she does appear in the BAT, that's when I think she will burst Harry's bubble, that what she felt wasn't true love. I think she will try and let him down gently, but it will still hurt a lot.
On the Lara/Harry romance, Harry likes her and is attracted to her, but that seems to be about it so far. The only thing that's changed in 12 months is he has a tighter grip on her. Previously, he always ended up with the upper hand anyway. I do see how a genuine romance could develop from here, and I do actually like the idea.
The chemistry between the two of them has always been good. There has always been a degree of mutual respect between them, Lara doesn't lecture Harry. I think that's what really got old with Murphy for my part.
