Someone had all (illegal) reasons for an attack in full rage; her life had been distraught by the rejection of her love-object. Indeed, her life was in pieces by then, it seems to me. THEN an unknown murderer comes to the little village and does the same, what she ML would preferably have done probably. Makes sense, if she did it (I know: alibi etc.) and also makes sense, if some in SA knew of her verrry strong interest in JFG and sent a hitman. Perfect timing, if it was a hitman, MOO.
Let us try not oppose MLA and KC but compare their situations because I see a certain dimilarity
Two women in the same age group
Both pleasant
You can imagine that in their time both were very attractive
Still attractive
Not super well-paid jobs, but one, a teacher, another, a nurse
Both had kids
Both had husbands; I am not sure about Alan’s money but at one point he bought Karen that gite
We don’t know MLA’s former husband but probably what they had was enough to live comfortably in the village
Comes JFG. First, he is financially well better-off MLA. Her brother says something about her life being much better off had she married G. So, some financial interest.
However: was MLA delusional when she divorced her husband and ruined the family? Hard to tell. However, it is a fact that at least at one point in time JFG was taking her out, isn’t it so? So, not an imagination, there was some connection between them. Then he "backpedaled" I guess. But, MLA still had her job, her hobby, was living a life. Not crushed, although, predictably unhappy.
Did MLA overrate the widower’s general willingness to marry? Perhaps, but hard to tell what she’d been told. It is possible that he just was “telling tales”, and lost interest when she became too serious about it.
So maybe MLA was naive in assessing the seriousness of JFG’s intentions, but nothing more "delusional" than that.
But then, enters Karen. Karen, who’s hard-working, a cancer survivor, slowly building up business with the gite. Very pleasant, very gracious, but she comes across as a serious person and a planner. She is a reasonable woman, married for the second time, who lived in several countries and is the mother of four kids. Very worldly. Stable.
Suddenly this epitome of practicality, KC, is engaged in a quiet but passionate relationship with JFG, and she, too, files for a divorce. After years of marriage, you don’t just abandon the family. You have to have an alternative plan.
So we have two women who, having dated JFG for a while, headed exactly the same way, towards the divorce! And rather rapidly.
How many more could there be under his belt? What was JFG’s life before? From the villagers account, women came to visit him. What happened to them?
In my life, I knew a man who was a “serial relationship-wrecker”. I can’t say “home wrecker” because I was 20 and he, 30, but he had a train of stories about broken engagements, or being engaged and suddenly marrying someone else. I thought these were his fantasies, but I later i did meet several sobbing young women, befriended some. At this, he was viewed as "solid" by adult people. An unusual type, but...if you know that the pattern exists, you start wondering.
So...Was JFG the man who kept someone with his promises on the hook for too long? Broke one marriage too many? Was there someone else who, too, divorced and rearranged her life? Who then watched him dating other women and finally, snapped?
So, I am not in "Alan Carter did it" camp. If I heard that the Carters were splitting a diamond mine in the divorce, I might reconsider. But what we know about is some property in South Africa and some in France and a man who seems to be a good father. Not the type.
My feeling is, either someone who had a crush on Karen and was angry that his rival was older and richer. (Seriously, I do have the "class jealousy" vibe).
Or look at someone from JFG's past.
The phrase "a hotbed of affairs" could simply mean that JFG lived vicariously through "romances" because he knew what follows 75. But to break two marriages tells me that he might have been persuasive in his promises. Could have been a pattern, and someone could have been angry.
To add: if MLA has an alibi, her only known connection with the murder is, sadly, tought luck at having had some relationship with JFG in the past. We don't know of any threats of KC, nor any pen-poison letters, nor any toxicity. Yet her name is smeared, she is probably ashamed, moved away.
If you look at it not as "love triangle" and I don't see any triangle just a persuasive man, then "one woman is dead, another one has her good name smeared", looks too unfair.
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