2-3-4 Challenge Book Discussions #2 discussion

It’s clear the police are not investigating Shields and have, in fact, filed the report on Coolidge’s death away in their “who gives a d***” file. What does this tell you about the department and/or Det. Sweeney? In your opinion, does social status, gender, race or the “good old boys” mentality play into their blatant refusal to investigate the case? Why or why not?

Det. Sweeney does the bare minimum required to close a case. If it looked like suicide, he wasn't going to take it any farther than he had to, even with the money element. He was all of those things, but above all - he was lazy.

Lazy is how I describe Det. Sweeney too. He is going to find the easiest way to close a case, even if the wrong person gets the blame. If there is no big shot wanting an arrest, he tosses it in a drawer.

Yup I agree. I don't think social status or anything else had anything to do with it. Sweeney was just plain lazy.

I think he's lazy also...but I think there's a lot of the "good old boy" mentality going on in that department. It's more a feeling, I guess, than anything else but I got the feeling women were dismissed as being a bit silly...that they should stay in their place. Maybe just me.

I agree with you all.