MAN WITH THE SAND DOLLAR FACE

In CassanoLochman’s (Stranded on Thin Ice, 2017) thriller, a good-hearted older woman becomes involved in a criminal conspiracy.

Hattie Crumford is a chatty 62-year-old widow who describes herself as “a non-congealer with society…a clump of quirky personality floating with the rest of the population.” Having spent most of her adult life cooped up at home in a distant, childless marriage, she’s made it a point since her husband’s death to explore her native New Orleans. As the assistant to a private investigator, she never expects anything dramatic to happen to her. Then, one day, a strange man arrives in the office, warning her about the “man with the sand dollar face” before collapsing and dying in her arms. After she runs for help, she returns to find that the dead body has vanished, and detectives and police officers think that she must simply be a batty old lady. Undeterred, she decides to continue the investigation herself. But Hattie’s snooping leads her into more danger than she bargained for—especially after she finds a crumpled piece of paper with information about a mysterious substance called “Blue Diamonds.” Hattie’s first-person narrative voice is distinctive, and provides plenty of charming moments; her reflections on menopause, for instance, are laugh-out-loud funny. But although the narrative implies that the other characters are wrong to underestimate Hattie, they might have trusted her even less if they were privy to her thoughts; her musings sometimes veer into sanctimonious territory, as when she internally berates others for lacking her own friendly and thoughtful personality. She also tends to spout shallow philosophy (“Happiness [is] harnessed in the form of human connections”). Also, because readers’ perceptions of events are confined to Hattie’s lighthearted kookiness, many will be unprepared for the suddenly serious tone during the climax.     

A cozy but flimsy mystery with an eccentric protagonist.