THE GUARDIAN

by ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 17, 1974

A biopsy of a small-town murder -- as gratuitous as the four bullets which destroy the face and identity of a young woman so thoroughly that she's buried as unknown in Lymington on Cape Cod -- is presided over by the guardian of the title, Lymington's long-time chief of police, well-weathered Nye Richardson Gifford who represents the last of an old New England family. The case itself is intermittently pursued and followed up until the girl, pretty but fancy under those false eyelashes -- all that remained -- is identified and connected with a basketball player who shucked her to a criminal who hassled her. In between, though, it's Gift who will hold just as much of your interest, a man looking back on his life that was, in this town that was, with its changing mien -- an Esplanade here, a development there, youngsters pushing drugs, the shambling derelict with his hand out for the next drink. . . . Gift is one of the nicest oldsters you've met in a long time and as you traipse behind him, ghosts of the past and home truths of the present scud away with those monarch butterflies and falling leaves. . . . Hough (A Two Funeral) is an easy, natural writer and this is a nice book to warm the hands which are holding it.

Pub Date: Feb. 17, 1974

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atlantic/Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1974

Categories: FICTION