A fine murder mystery, in the style of Agatha Christie, with a hawk-eyed protagonist and bevy of suspects.
In Ayer’s (Tales of Chinkapin Creek, Volume II, 2012, etc.) mystery novel, the accidental death of an affluent alcoholic may, in fact, be a simple case of murder.
It’s the first party of the summer in French Haven, Maine, at George Wollaston’s home, and many of the guests are inebriated. Afterward, caterer Richard Grassie finds George dead from an apparent fall down the backyard steps. It’s initially viewed as an unfortunate accident; George had a similar stumble just last year. But it turns out that there’s no shortage of people who wanted to see him dead—including his wife, Margaret, who blames him for their son’s suicide, and his teenage daughter, Angie, whom he’d humiliated by loudly disapproving of her attire at the party. When cops find evidence that George may have been drugged, nearly everyone at the party becomes a suspect. It’s up to amateur sleuth Richard, along with police chief Eliot Perham and Detective Le Bel, to solve the murder. Richard is initially afraid he might forget details about that night, so he writes down everything he can remember for the police; it’s a plot point that functions superbly, as it provides a logical reason for him to work with Chief Eliot. It also inserts some drama into the story, as his notes also cause police to question his friend and co-worker Flora. Fans of traditional whodunits will be delighted with this tale, as it exuberantly follows many genre conventions, including suspects who may not be murderers but definitely have secrets to hide. Ayer sets the mystery in the 1980s, which adds to its classic mystery appeal, as there’s no modern technology in sight. The story’s most remarkable element, however, is the way it tackles the serious issue of alcoholism. George’s addiction, for example, has devastated his family, and Richard’s own father was also a heavy drinker. Alcohol even has detrimental consequences for the murder case, as one guest’s intoxication makes her an unreliable witness.
A fine murder mystery, in the style of Agatha Christie, with a hawk-eyed protagonist and bevy of suspects.Pub Date: April 17, 2014
ISBN: 978-1484980675
Page Count: 272
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
Britisher Swift's sixth novel (Ever After, 1992 etc.) and fourth to appear here is a slow-to-start but then captivating tale of English working-class families in the four decades following WW II. When Jack Dodds dies suddenly of cancer after years of running a butcher shop in London, he leaves a strange request—namely, that his ashes be scattered off Margate pier into the sea. And who could better be suited to fulfill this wish than his three oldest drinking buddies—insurance man Ray, vegetable seller Lenny, and undertaker Vic, all of whom, like Jack himself, fought also as soldiers or sailors in the long-ago world war. Swift's narrative start, with its potential for the melodramatic, is developed instead with an economy, heart, and eye that release (through the characters' own voices, one after another) the story's humanity and depth instead of its schmaltz. The jokes may be weak and self- conscious when the three old friends meet at their local pub in the company of the urn holding Jack's ashes; but once the group gets on the road, in an expensive car driven by Jack's adoptive son, Vince, the story starts gradually to move forward, cohere, and deepen. The reader learns in time why it is that no wife comes along, why three marriages out of three broke apart, and why Vince always hated his stepfather Jack and still does—or so he thinks. There will be stories of innocent youth, suffering wives, early loves, lost daughters, secret affairs, and old antagonisms—including a fistfight over the dead on an English hilltop, and a strewing of Jack's ashes into roiling seawaves that will draw up feelings perhaps unexpectedly strong. Without affectation, Swift listens closely to the lives that are his subject and creates a songbook of voices part lyric, part epic, part working-class social realism—with, in all, the ring to it of the honest, human, and true.
Pub Date: April 5, 1996
ISBN: 0-679-41224-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1996
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