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
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
A super-exorcism that leaves the taste of somebody else's blood in your mouth and what a bad taste it is. King presents us with the riddle of a small Maine town that has been deserted overnight. Where did all the down-Easters go? Matter of fact, they're still there but they only get up at sundown. . . for a warm drink. . . .Ben Mears, a novelist, returns to Salem's Lot (pop. 1319), the hometown he hasn't seen since he was four years old, where he falls for a young painter who admires his books (what happens to her shouldn't happen to a Martian). Odd things are manifested. Someone rents the ghastly old Marsten mansion, closed since a horrible double murder-suicide in 1939; a dog is found impaled on a spiked fence; a healthy boy dies of anemia in one week and his brother vanishes. Ben displays tremendous calm considering that you're left to face a corpse that sits up after an autopsy and sinks its fangs into the coroner's neck. . . . Vampirism, necrophilia, et dreadful alia rather overplayed by the author of Carrie (1974).
Pub Date: Oct. 17, 1975
ISBN: 0385007515
Page Count: 458
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1975
PERSPECTIVES
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