June 26, 1997
Any reviewer should declare their biases. I read mysteries - a LOT of mysteries, so I am a fairly tough critic. This is an enjoyable, but not compelling, book.
The plot isn't an Agatha Christie/Dorothy Sayers puzzle, where you're introduced to six people, one of whom is a vicious killer. The plot is more evolutionary, in the manner of P.D. James; who the killer is isn't as important as how and why the crime occurred. I'm partial to both styles, and this plot is a good one.
J.C. Kaminer, psychiatrist and voyeur, is the therapist for a black NBA star, Charlie Manes, who is tormented by his beautiful, blonde, nymphomanic wife, Charlotte (also Charley). When she is murdered, he is suspected. J.C., his therapist, decides to deduce who did kill her, as he is relativity certain his patient isn't violent.
J.C. is the main character, and to a certain extent, the other people in the book are his reflections. His love interest, a female therapist named Marion, is never fully alive. Despite the fact that J.C. goes on about how besotted with her he is, there isn't any good romantic dialogue between. His early conversations with the murdered Charlotte crackle with twice the sexual tension as an explicit bedroom scene with Marion. She is only a creature of words.
There are a lot of words here. By the tenth page, you realize the author is drunk on verbiage, and by the fifth chapter, the main character confesses to this weakness. The overblown wordplay drags the characters and the plot; my only hopeful sign is to look at how Dorothy Sayers first had Peter Wimsey talking. Perhaps MM can conrol this. There is a tendency to try to develop character by providing a laundry list of objects or foods that supposedly give clues to personality. It feels contrived. Early in the book, Charlie, the NBA star, mentions being threatened by the Mafia in a point-shaving situation. J.C. looks around at his leather-bound Freud, his first editions, his..etc., and concludes that he wouldn't want to risk these objects. The list is supposed to tip us off as to tastes, preferences, desires. How much more effective it would have been to have Charlie walk around the room restlessly and say,"Doc, what's that?" "My leather-bound Freud.." "Yeah, well my fingers and kneecaps mean as much to me as that stuff does to you.." Discover and reveal, not list and exposit.
Is the book worth it? Most definitely. It's witty and fun. The dialogue there is is very good, there just isn't enough of it. Some particularly vivid turns of phrase are still with me, and that's the cardinal sign of good writing (between this book and Kit's fanfic, I'll never see a table in the same light again). Read and enjoy.
Cynthia/Cape Cod
By the way - lose Mother. She ain't that funny.
Thanks Cynthia! [dw]
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