N is for Nutty Significant Others or Ted Bundy Didn't Fool Everyone

A popular trope in traditional romance novels is the heroine who is engaged or married to a sociopath. 

The book I tried by Brenda Novak, Tourist Season, falls into this category. 

I have a problem with this trope. 

Americans like to mythologize their serial killers: They were so clever and so handsome...THAT'S why they weren't caught right away. 

The truth is, catching serial killers is hard because randomness (or seeming randomness) is hard to pinpoint. It isn't because serial killers are "all that." 

One of Ted Bundy's approaches was to put on a sling (to make himself look harmless) and ask women to help him at his car. The myth forgets, a number of women didn't go with him. (The movie with Harmon as Bundy does a good job showing that reality.) 

Harmon as Bundy

The women didn't go with him for all kinds of reasons. They had plans. Or they had a policy of not going anywhere with strangers. Or they were going to fetch other people to help. Or they actually thought he was kind of sketchy. Not sketchy enough to call in the cops--people don't usually react to uneasy feelings that way. But sketchy.

One of my aunts (now dead) married a creepy guy. She then divorced him and married another creepy guy. 

Her sisters, including my mom, thought the guys were creepy from Day One.

Of course, people fall into relationships for reasons other than using their brains. People aren't (necessarily) to blame for ending up with horrible partners and/or with partners who become horrible and/or with abusive partners. They certain don't deserve to be hurt/killed.

Brenda is a great, flawed character

who luckily ends up with Fritz.

The problem with the trope in paperback romances is how often the writers want the heroines to be savvy and logical,  tough women who are trapped, not dopey women or desperate women or even (like Brenda in The Closer) complicated women who can be tough on the job but really stupid about relationships. 

Instead, the heroines' above-it-all natures are used to excuse their lack of perception, despite these female characters often being in careers that deal with people.

I likely wouldn't like them much better if they were basket-cases who made excuses for their partners (as my aunt did). But I also wouldn't spend the book, thinking, "It took you until now to figure out that this guy is a pathological liar?" especially since, far too often, the guy turns out to have no redeeming qualities. He is handsome and charming but there's nothing else to explain the engagement or marriage--not a pitiable story or shared interests. 

Just one day this entirely self-aware woman was walking along and, oops, happened to get into a serious relationship with a serial killer. My, my, how did that happen?   

Novak does supply an interesting contrast: a sociopath versus an ordinary criminal/guy who went to jail. Unfortunately, the contrast emphasizes how un-self-aware the heroine is: if there is a difference between the men...what took you so long?!