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.In short, good detectives are Aristotelian:they emphasize practical wisdom rather than obedience to rules.These novelsfamiliarize us with the idea that it is often more productive to address moralproblems on a case-by-case basis, taking in the particular features of a situation,rather than by applying rules in a blind, impartial, and impersonal way.(ii) CareIn Jean-Claude Izzo s trilogy, Fabio Montale is first a demoted cop, and then anex-cop.His investigations take place in Marseille s, a town crippled by racismand corruption, a breeding ground for the Mafia, for the National Front, and,more recently, for Islamic Fundamentalism.What drives Montale in his fightagainst injustice is his anger at these evils, and his intense desire to eradicatethem.In the second novel, Chourmo, his beloved cousin comes to him to ask forhelp in finding her son, who has run away to be with his girlfriend.She addsthat she does not want him seeing the girl, as she is an Algerian, and You knowwhat these people are like.When he hears this he threatens to throw her out ofhis house.Later on in the story, he witnesses a murder and is taken to a policestation to be interrogated by a corrupt police officer.When he leaves the station,he tears off a National Front election poster and throws it in the bin, knowingfull well that no one who works in that station will thank him for it.Montale is a man who feels pain every time an innocent person, or at leastsomeone who is not totally corrupt, dies.The nephew he is looking for has beenmurdered.His reaction to seeing the body is like a red lightning inside my eyes.His blood.His death splashes me.How will I be able to shut my eyes now,without seeing his body? (Izzo 2002a: 220) But what keeps him going throughall this anger and pain is the chourmo spirit of the title, that is, the spirit ofthe old galley slaves who knew that their only chance of survival was to sticktogether and to help each other, a certain kind of concern and sympathy andactive involvement in other people s troubles which comes from the recognitionthat we are all in it together : When someone was in the shit, you could only befrom the same family.It was as simple as that (Izzo 2002a: 170).Montale s emotional involvement is informed and appropriate.He is angry atracism because he recognizes it as oppression and understands it has no rationaljustification.He also knows what kind of anger to display when.His anger at hiscousin is a personal kind: he lets her see his feelings, hopes she will be influencedby his display, and then forgives her.In the police station his anger is both publicand symbolic.He acts to make his action noticed, both by the racist police 222 Sandrine Bergesofficers and by the black and North African suspects who are dragged there forquestioning every day: to show them that somebody rejects the racial and politicalinjustice that they are involved in, and cares enough to act.Montale s emotions arewise as well as powerful.They are directed towards justice.They lead him to actmorally.Again, it becomes clear that this conception of morality is Aristotelian:a virtuous person according to Aristotle feels the right kind of emotions, at theright moment, and is thus driven by them to the right course of action.(iii) Character developmentAt the end of one of Marcia Muller s novels, her heroine, Sharon McCone,shoots a man.Her friend and colleague steps out of his office building; the killerwho has been lying in wait for him steps out and takes aim.McCone shoots thekiller from a distance, and he dies.Of course, everybody is grateful that she savedher colleague s life.Still, somehow, no one feels they are able to be close to herany more.She has shot and killed a man.They did not know she had it in her totake a life.She did not either.McCone has to deal not only with all her friendsgiving her the cold shoulder but with the kind of person she has become; or is itthe kind of person she has turned out to be?In each of the ensuing novels, McCone makes some progress towards regainingher friends trust and coming to terms with the changes in her character: boththe changes that led to the shooting, and the changes that it led to.In a veryCalifornian manner, she comes to terms with it all after a long introspectivenight spent sitting on top of a hill with her boyfriend
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