A zany, inventive, and multilayered fever dream of murder and mayhem
The killing of a prominent California poet spurs an eccentric insurance investigator into action in Brown’s offbeat mystery.
The action of the novel begins in 1977 with the sudden death of Ickey Jerusalem, a wealthy, well-known San Francisco–based artist and writer who’s found suffocated in a bathroom cubicle in the first-class cabin of a 747. On the same flight is lonely, divorced Dedalus “Ded” Smith, the adult son of a workaholic accountant and a pious mother, who’s tired of his stagnant career as an insurance claims adjuster in Buffalo, New York. While deplaning, Ded is met by an acquaintance of his: San Francisco Police Detective O’Nadir, who lets him tag along to inspect Ickey’s body. This draws Ded into the homicide case, which is initially ruled a suicide, but as Ded interrogates other passengers—mostly from Ickey’s business entourage—several clues are revealed and several suspects materialize. Among the latter are Ickey’s lawyer, Bacon Urizen; the flight purser; Beulah Vala, Ickey’s sightless, “spooky” personal assistant; plastic surgeon Bromion Ulro; and Ickey’s chauffeur. Most of these people were traveling together for a weeklong event commemorating the publication of Ickey’s poetry anthology. However, as Ded diligently probes the members of the group for hints of delinquency, the novel takes a surreal turn as some interviewees bizarrely metamorphose into insects, goats, and pink cows; in addition, references to Plato’s cave allegory, the philosophies of Socrates, and assorted parables swirl throughout the proceedings.
The story itself eventually morphs into a study of not only Jerusalem’s evocative poetry, but also such topics as existentialism and the cyclical nature of human connection. It’s also kooky and funny; one scene, in which Ded voyeuristically spies on some hotel guests in an adjoining room, is deliciously animated. Complicating the case is Ded’s attraction to Beulah, who’s named the beneficiary of her boss’s $20 million life insurance policy. The trouble multiplies as Brown’s suspenseful and wildly strange mystery unfolds, although the lengthy narrative loses some steam before the culprit is finally revealed. Still, the author’s fusion of colorful murder mystery and philosophical rumination dips into and out of reality with dreamlike ease. As the six-part tale evolves, the investigation into Ickey’s death goes on a number of tangents at a very leisurely pace, delving into such things as the “verbal decoration” of poetry, the “exaggerated importance” of poets, religion, and Ded’s disastrous marriage, as he sifts through the misfit murder suspects. The protagonist’s sleuthing keeps the pages turning, and his intense personality contributes to the narrative’s frenetic, free-falling tone. Overall, it makes for an entertaining and fascinating reading experience, as Ded is alluring, smart, funny, and has a mind full of colorful notions. Brown, a self-admitted “lifelong devotee of William Blake,” considers his novel a contemporary “riff” on that seminal poet’s oeuvre. Readers who enjoy ruminative mysteries that are as ornately embellished as museum tapestries will enjoy this creative amalgam of art, San Francisco history, and deep suspicion.
A zany, inventive, and multilayered fever dream of murder and mayhemPub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Galbraith Literary Publishers Incorporated
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
Vintage Follett. His fans will be pleased.
A dramatic, complex imagining of the origins of Stonehenge.
In about 2500 B.C.E. on the Great Plain, Seft and his family collect flints in a mine. He dislikes the work, and the motherless lad hates the abuse he gets from his father and brothers. He leaves them and arrives at a wooden monument where sacred events such as the Midsummer Rite take place. There are also circles of stones that help predict equinoxes, solstices, even eclipses. This is a world where the customary greeting is “May the Sun God smile on you,” and everyone is a year older on Midsummer Day. Except for a priestess or two, no one can count beyond fingers and toes—to indicate 30, they show both hands, point to both feet, then show both hands again. Casual sex is common, and sex between women is less common but not taboo. Joia, a young woman who becomes a priestess, wonders about her sexuality. After a fire destroys the Monument, she leads a bold effort to rebuild it in stone. To please the gods, they must haul 10 giant stones from distant Stony Valley. Of course neither machinery nor roads exist, so the difficulties are extraordinary. Although the project has its detractors, hundreds of able-bodied people are willing to help. Craftspeople known as cleverhands construct a sled and a road, and they make the rope to wrap around the stones. Many, many others pull. And pull. Meanwhile, the three principal groups—farmers, woodlanders, and herders—all have their separate interests. There is talk of war, which Joia has never seen in her lifetime. Soon it seems inevitable that the powerful farmers will not only start one but win it, unless heroes like Seft and Joia can come up with a creative plan. But there is also the matter of love for Joia in this well-plotted and well-told yarn. The story has a lot of characters from multiple tribes, and they can be hard to keep track of. A page in the front of the book listing who’s who would be helpful.
Vintage Follett. His fans will be pleased.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781538772775
Page Count: 704
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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