“There’s A Murder In Dragon’s Bend…”
- Book: Epiphany
- Location: Florida
- Author: Susan Slater
Oh Boy! Where do I begin to place this one on the scale of genres? – Yes, it is definitely a mystery! – but could I technically describe it either as a cozy mystery, or a murder/mystery of a much more sober and intense nature – I’m not sure, and therein lies my dilemma!
If I truly say that this book has a great storyline, which is well told through the voice of some excellent characters, with just the right amount of seriousness, but not written with too heavy a hand or tone of voice, then perhaps that will set the scene and the rest, well you can decide that for yourself!
Oh! and of course, it is fully deserving of its 4 star rating from me too!
Such was the personal and almost intimate nature of the narrative when I first read the premise for this book, I wondered whether I was going to be able to slot into this, the fourth book in the ‘Dan Mahoney Mysteries’ series, treating it as the stand alone story I hoped it might be. However I need not have worried. After the initial high impact opening pages set the scene of the investigation, enough of Dan’s past was woven into the early fabric of the story, that I was able to piece his life together more than comfortably enough to get a picture in my mind from quite early on in my reading, with the details then being fleshed out nicely as the story progressed, but without them taking over the narrative or dialogue of this storyline.
In fact, just about all of the profusion of characters were well drawn and defined, easy to relate to and connect with – even the ones I didn’t particularly like! The dynamics and interaction between the many unique personalities was excellent, making me feel as though I was right there in the space with them, eavesdropping on their conversations, although unable to change any of the outcomes. None of the characters were particularly complex, in fact several were rather unconventional, if engaging, with each having just enough depth for their dialogue exchanges to be compelling and their actions spontaneous and natural.
In fact this became quite a ‘family affair’ with Dan, Elaine, Dan’s mother, Elaine’s son, and Elaine’s son’s girlfriend, all becoming involved in the multi faceted investigation, but all coming at it from their own individual perspectives. There was plenty of potential for the whole narrative to become rather sloppy and messy, however Susan kept everything nicely under control.
There were so many individual elements and sub-plots going on in the story, that this almost felt like a trolley dash through the entire crime book and charge sheet of the local police department, where sorting out all the crimes was a major operation in itself, without the task of trying to deduce who all the guilty parties were! Yet everything was included in the narrative in such a way that the journey never felt rushed or contrived, with each story scene flowing freely into the next, in an engagingly fluid read. Susan slipped in a few choice ‘red herrings’ along the way, to put those of us, like myself, who consider themselves to be fairly competent amateur sleuths, off the scent – and they all slipped me up a treat!
Even though I had my suspicions about one of the eventual perpetrators, I still didn’t really work out all the intricacies of their part in the plot and just how deeply they were involved, if at all.
The lovely balance between the character and plot based elements of the story, were just about perfect, making this a great book to escape into, with the pages almost turning themselves!
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