The Mockingbirds © John Lewis 2024

SYNOPSIS

The Mockingbirds tells how three former soldiers, embark on a campaign against domestic violence that reduces incidents of the violence in a similar headline-grabbing manner and with similar effect to the Harvey Weinstein scandal on sexual harassment that gave impetus to the Me Too movement. One of the soldiers has exceptional IT skills that they are able to employ in assisting them with their endeavours, two of them have suffered domestic violence murders within their extended families, and all three look upon combatting the violence as being a far worthier consumer of their time and skills than the effort they have expended fighting prolonged foreign wars for little perceived gain. James, the main male protagonist, has an enchanting personality and sense of humour that emerges from initial melancholy to alleviate the seriousness of a subject that could hardly be more topica.

After they embark on their campaign, a small number of key domestic violence perpetrators are discovered in public places, trussed up naked and painted blue with a placard of their misdeeds tied to their necks. When videos of these humiliations go viral, domestic violence figures drop markedly at home and abroad, partly as a result of wide-spread copy-cat humiliation of offenders occurring, but mainly from an upsurge of communities demonstrating that they have had enough, and the bulk of previous offenders being fearful of being outed on social media because of the publicity.

But with a small number of particularly dangerous perpetrators who have strong biker gangster affiliation, the protagonists choose to deal with them in a deadlier manner by tricking fellow gangsters to turn on them, a decision that ultimately endangers their own lives. It is at this point that a young female reporter stumbles onto what they are doing and, in pursuing her enquiries, jeopardizes her own life and compounds the threat to theirs. Concerned that their actions have indirectly endangered the reporter and that she might become a victim of a circumstance they are acutely aware of – collateral damage – they team up with her. She then becomes an integral part of the deadly drama that enfolds during the conclusion of the story. And as with many military campaigns, the mopping-up operation takes longer and becomes more dangerous than the campaign itself, culminating in the self-initiated annihilation of those threatening them.

Because there is no description of the protagonists actually carrying out their anti-domestic-violence activities (snatching offenders, stripping them and painting them blue etc), and because they never admit to their complicity, readers will presume the level of their involvement based on backstories that contain corroborating depictions of their character, motivation and uncompromising anti-domestic-violence resolve, along with discussion by others of the military-based tactics they would have had to employ to guarantee the successful execution of their activities. Backstories are also used to describe domestic violence and sexual harassment in many of its manifestations, as well as portray the character and ways of an interesting cross-section of society.