“Sometimes death is the loudest voice you have.”
- Book: Relative Fortunes
- Location: New York City (NYC)
- Author: Marlowe Benn
Right, so how to offer up my best review of this book – without giving away any (too many) spoilers!
I am already a dedicated fan of traditional mystery stories, however many of these are by their very definition, English centric, so I was interested to see how well the genre would transfer across the Atlantic to the USA. I need not have worried, as in author Marlowe Benn’s expert hands the transition was seamlessly elegant, with a new and vibrant cast of characters, a textbook storyline beautifully executed, together with a satisfying conclusion which would have done Dame Agatha Christie, the great lady of the genre proud, whilst leaving the door firmly open for the expanded series to become the undoubted success I predict.
In fact at one point during the story, my favourite new amateur sleuth, Julia Kydd, is actually likened to someone hoping to emulate one of the protagonists from the books of the great progressive new author, Mrs. Christie. This set me thinking about the great lady’s characters of ‘Tommy and Tuppence Beresford’, with Julia’s “brother” Philip, unwittingly turning out to be a perfect Tommy, as a foil for Julia’s, Tuppence.
A delicious mix of fiction, blended with a little fact, well researched and presented, there is a strong opening chapter to the book, which really helps to set the scene in a no nonsense way. The storyline in which Julia then finds herself embroiled, moves along at a good pace, with a full cast of clearly defined characters, great easy to follow, clipped dialogue and some excellent descriptive narrative. The ending, whilst not perhaps as definitive as I would usually like, is definitely all left to the imagination of the reader, but is certainly going to have me looking out for the next time Julia Kydd crosses my path!
Set in a post WWI New York, with women having recently attained the right to vote and prohibition in full swing, it is all too apparent that for many families, it is still very much a man’s world and the women of the household are perceived both personally and financially to be the chattels of their male counterparts and not to be trusted with even the smallest modicum of independence, freedom of speech, or almost indeed, freedom of thought.
Julia, educated in the US, then leaving for London as soon as she was able, has now returned to New York at the behest of her step-brother, Philip and his lawyers, to try and unravel the nonsense of their late father’s will. It wouldn’t be giving too much away to reveal that Julia is something of a bibliophile, who dreams, with the help of her portion of the inheritance, of running her own small bespoke publishing and book binding house. Well! given what the times dictate and no matter how much more progressive the US is in some matters, than their UK counterparts, at least by Julia’s reckoning, you can imagine what happens next! – Or can you? I certainly didn’t, as the final pieces of the jigsaw puzzle which is Philip and Julia’s life, are only revealed right near the end of the story. Totally unexpected, although it really shouldn’t have been, as once again some excellent research has thrown up a scenario which was completely plausible for the times, I was left a little breathless, but somewhere in the back of my mind, a whole new plan was forming! Is Philip really the dark horse that I would like him to be?
Julia’s wealthy friend Glennis Rankin, contrives to involve Julia in her intense family traumas, where she quickly works out that, to a person, a more noxiously, complex group of pretentious individuals you would be hard pushed to find, with the exception of the lovely Glennis herself. At first she cannot wait to make her excuses and get away from the company of so many people it is almost impossible to connect with in any sensible fashion. But when a double disaster strikes, which involves both Glennis and herself personally, Julia is set a challenge by the ever erudite Philip, which she neither wants to, or cannot afford to, refuse and Glennis is certain that there is villainy afoot in the Rankin household. Thus setting off a chain of events, which through the astute written power of characterisation, showcases the entire Rankin family in all their disturbingly true colours and provides an excellent study of human behaviour and social commentary, completely in tune with the thinking of the times.
Typical of the tried and tested Agatha Christie case solving formula, Julia contrives to gather all the suspects around her in a place of her choosing, to finally ‘out’ the suspect. However, hand on heart, she only really actually knows half the story for certain, as every single one of them played some small part in bringing poor Naomi’s life to an end. So she throws down some timely seeds of doubt and stands back, as her cast of suspects begin to argue and bicker amongst themselves, unwittingly divulging, a little at a time, pieces of the puzzle which Julia hadn’t really known for certain. Eventually Julia can see the wood for the trees, confidently names her suspect and once again steps aside, a viewer to the most unseemly behaviour which then follows.
Definitely a case of ‘The female of the species is more deadly than the male’ – although only just!
A multi aspect, well constructed storyline, which offered a lovely blend of plot and character driven storytelling. Completely believable, observationally astute and descriptively very visual and tense.
I would have loved to read Passing Fancies, book #2 in the Julia Kydd series back to back, however previous commitments don’t make that possible. I shall definitely be boosting the book up my TBR at every possible opportunity and please keep the stories coming, Marlowe!
Please wait...
