SKETCHY CHARACTERS

A woman gets tangled up in a dangerous and messy plot in this comic crime novel.

Marilyn is the superintendent of a Houston building that has just flooded, destroying her apartment and effectively putting her out of a job. She goes to stay at her friend Fran’s apartment, but the woman seems to be missing. Marilyn searches for Fran and enlists her friend Rigby for help. Marilyn soon realizes that a few women from the life drawing class where she models have disappeared in the last few years. The police get involved and suspect foul play. At the top of the suspect list are two British cohorts known as the Lads, who live next door to Fran and seem to be the common link between the missing women. Then Fran turns up dead. Marilyn witnesses the Lads being fatally shot and snoops around before stealing some cash and property and fleeing Fran’s building. Marilyn lies to her police contact, Stade, about what she saw. But rather than laying low, Marilyn gets pulled further into the case, wrangling with the murder suspects’ lawyers, finding a legally dubious job, becoming ensnared in a blackmail plot with the real killer, and lying to Stade, whom she later sleeps with. Despite the dark content of McGraw’s story, the tone is often funny and the tale leans more toward the absurd than the realistic, making it a kind of gruesome farce. Unfortunately, Marilyn becomes less sympathetic as the narrative progresses. She starts off dealing with a tremendous loss but then gets herself into more and more trouble, a lot of which could have been avoided if she had opted for honesty. And every man she encounters falls in love with her, which starts to feel tedious. There’s also a story thread that features Marilyn having imaginary conversations with her dead aunt that ends up being more silly than effective. Still, the tale shines in its characterization, as Marilyn is surrounded by a group of kooky Houstonians who keep the story lively and intriguing. Based on the references to novelist Carl Hiaasen in the book, the author seems to have been going for a similar wacky vibe. While McGraw falls a bit short, fans of humorous mysteries will find a lot to like here.

An amusing and energetic, if sometimes bumpy, murder tale.