THE TELLING OF LIES

by Timothy Findley ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1988

A substandard murder-tale (cozy English variety) with literary pretensions, set among the patrician residents of a resort hotel on the coast of Maine. For 60-ish Vanessa Van Home and most other residents, summering at the Aurora Sands Hotel is a longstanding tradition, a privilege of birth. When Calder Maddox, pharmaceutical magnate, is murdered on the beach and a cover-up ensues--including the abduction of his mistress, Vanessa's childhood friend--Vanessa investigates and unravels the crime in her dignified upper-class way. Relating events in her journal, she also recalls her internment on Java by the Japanese during WW II, where her father was killed. Vanessa is an interesting narrator, an intelligent isolato with a wry humor, but Findley (Not Wanted on the Voyage, 1985; Famous Last Words, 1982; The Wars, 1978) strains at her voice, going over the top again and again. He does a better job in drawing the genteel milieu--these could be the grandchildren of Wharton's characters. The flashbacks set in Java have power, but they feel grafted on, out of place in a light mystery--and a disappointing mystery, at that. The method of murder is immediately obvious, and a revelation tying in CIA brainwashing plots and walk-ons by the President and Cabinet members is not so much unlikely as it is rote and flimsy, off-the-rack. There's a moving novel implied in the wartime flashbacks, and with tighter plotting this might have been a pleasant entertainment, but, as written, it falls short on both counts.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Delta/Delacorte

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1988

Categories: FICTION