Susan Kenney

At the age of twelve, Sara Boyd loses her forty-year-old father. For herself and her younger brother and sister, his death is their first brush with tragedy. This is an event which will stay with them for the rest of their lives, and his loss will ultimately affect all of their future relationships in one way or another.

As an adult, Sara realizes that her father's early death is actually the catalyst for her mother's frequent bouts of madness; and in turn, each of these manic episodes increasingly disturb Sara's own life - unduly straining both her marriage and family. When her husband subsequently becomes seriously ill, Sara draws on her past experiences to find the renewed strength to carry on.

I enjoyed reading this book very much; I found it to be a very poignant, well-told story. This book has been described as six interrelated short stories, but I think it would be far more accurate to describe them as six short vignettes in Sara's life. Each vignette is gut-wrenching in its own way, but doesn't necessarily seem to me to be excessively maudlin. I give this book an A+! and would be very interested to read the sequel, Sailing, if at all possible.… (altro)

Literature prof Roz Howard is called in by Canterbury College (Maine, USA) to replace a don who has died in a tragic accident and arrives just in time to witness a string of additional accidents that - of course - turn out not to be accidents at all. Will she solve the puzzle before the killer comes after her?

Admit I seek out mysteries set in academic milieus, perhaps because I think it would be cool to be a professor but also because I enjoy a good scholarly discussion. Howard's specialty is early world lit and it's clear the author, Susan Kenney, is well-schooled in the topic. I like, too, that Kenney actually works the literature into the mystery; the references to Beowulf, Canterbury Tales and Shakespeare aren't just showing off, they actually end up working as clues to the mystery.

What I didn't like is Kenney's narrative style, which was WAY too reliant on introspection. Whatever happened to "show, don't tell"? Instead, we get page after page of internal monologue as Roz speculates about colleagues and campus events and puzzles over things that may or may not be clues. I resented being walked through every event ad infinitum, as if I couldn't be trusted to spot the clues or the implications myself. Another problem with this narrative style is that it places the narrator (Roz) in the uncomfortable situation of being intelligent enough to spot clues but not intelligent enough to figure them out (thus allowing for plot development, more murders, etc.). When the big reveal comes, you may or may not have figured out the killer, but one thing you'll know for sure is that it won't be whoever Roz has been suspecting all along.

Other irritations: (1) Roz is lifted straight from the "Mary Anne" school of heroines, perfect in every way (as is her impossibly perfect inamorata Alan); (2) the red herrings are WAY more interesting than the eventual denoument; and (3) the book's "woman's lib" theme is embarrassingly dated.

Not an awful book by any means, but I find it significant that one of the words in the tag cloud for this book is "donate," which is just what I'll be doing with my copy.… (altro)