5J

Should Vera have called for help sooner? Or should she have gone to arrest Simon before they put Connie and her daughter at risk?

She needed evidence to arrest Simon and she didn't have anything that would have amounted to that. It would have been a hard call as to what she should have done since until things started to happen and Simon arrived at about the same time she and Joe did, she wasn't sure that Connie and Alice were there for sure.

It probably would have been better if she first called for help but knowing Vera, she always wants to do things by herself and does not delegate the situation.

I think she needed more evidence but didn't expect that decision to endanger Connie or Alice.

Vera was being overly cautious and clever, (as is her usual way, it seems), she could have got the troops out immediately she thought the pair were at the boathouse. I think Vera worries that she'll look foolish if her hunches are wrong - I remember she did the same last book (?) when she and Joe almost lost the bad guy at the bird hide.

>5 Sergeirocks: I had the same thought Sergei, this was exactly what she did in the last book as she was scared of being wrong and looking a fool. She needs to back herself more and she should have called for back-up much sooner. She could have cost Alice and Connie their lives.

I also think there is a lot of ego involved with Vera wanting to make the catch so she doesn't call to send anyone else out.

>7 Lynsey2: A major weakness in my opinion.