RAAAAAAAAGE

[wmetoile]

So our heroine the Coast Guard whatever is afraid of scuba diving (because her father died on a dive-isn't that always the way?), which appears to be a substantial part of the job. But she and Heath go diving in the seeekrit underwater cave on Devil's Island where the diamond smugglers did their totally eeeeevil diamond smuggling, and it becomes pretty clear when she almost kills both of them because of nitrogen narcosis that she's not a very good diver, either. I would assume that one of the first things they tell you when teaching diving protocols is that if you get too deep, the nitrogen in your tank makes you high and you start having thoughts like, what if she pulls the plug on the bottom of Lake Superior and all the water drains out? (That was Heath's nitro-addled musing. Dude, you, um, wouldn't drown if she did that. That would be great.)

So he has to pull her out of the water and save her life for the second time in 60 pages. I've never served in the armed forces, but I bet ladies who have wouldn't appreciate this character representing them. She's described as timid and fragile, and the hero's internal monologue often refers to his inexplicable need to protect her, because she's so fragile and shit. (And inept. Don't forget inept!) And then there's this:

"No." Tracie felt foolish. None of the guys at the Coast Guard got this emotional, certainly not around each other. She hated being different from her peers simply because she was a woman.
It's not that you're a woman, Tracie. It's that you're a pansy.