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I have appreciated Sarah Deane and Alex McKenzie ever since I first met them in The Case of the Hook-Billed Kites. I have watched them complete their educations, marry, relocate, even travel to Europe. So it is always a pleasure to spend some time with them. Sarah has earned her Ph.D. in Literature and is ready to start teaching at nearby Bowmouth College in the fall. Alex is working as a physician as well as acting as part-time medical examiner. Alexís parents, John and Elspeth, have moved to a planned community near by them in Maine after Johnís retirement from teaching at Harvard. Two other families had moved in about the same time, the Colleys and the Mosebys. Mrs. Colley and Mrs. Moseby were sisters. Not too long after, first one body and then another were found on the grounds of Ocean Tide Community. Murder is not the only crime happening at this community; bicycles are being stolen as well as expensive golf clubs. Sarah, who has been reproached in the past for trying to solve crimes, is determined to keep out and leave the investigation to the police. This is difficult and eventually impossible for her to do. As I said I enjoy meeting Sarah and Alex again and encountering the other people who inhabit this planned community and the area around it. I donít think anyone would feel these characters are especially believable. They seem to have certain traits and we define them by these traits. Alex is breezy and competent. Sarah is curious and inquisitive. The police detective is methodical and humorless. Nobody is quite real and nobody really changes all that much. The story flows quite nicely and nothing gets in the way of the readerís enjoyment. Yes, you had better be prepared to suspend a great deal of disbelief for, even though Sarah and Alex move from place to place, we definitely have the Cabot Cove Syndrome occurring. But if you will not insist on believable and rational, and can just sit back and let the story flow about you, I think you will find it quite enjoyable. My only problem was the denouement. The ending seemed hurried and not quite what I was prepared for. The motives for murder seemed rather weak. It was as though the story just sort of gasped and died. There was really no dramatic resolution; it just finished. But for an escape from reality on a gray gloomy day this was a good choice.
Reviewed by Sally A. Fellows, April 2002
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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