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POISONED ROSE, THE
by D. Daniel Judson
Bantam, October 2002
304 pages
$6.50
ISBN: 0553584197


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Although the second book in a series, The Poisoned Rose is actually a prequel to the first book, The Bone Orchard. Set in the resort town of Southampton, New York, Declan ("Mac") MacManus is a year-round resident. There's no sense of vitality or pleasure in the book; rather, the events depicted are dark, disturbing and discomforting.

Mac is an alcoholic who is barely managing to survive. He lives in some barren rooms above a bar and works hard to remove himself from others and their demands upon him. Working at a series of low level jobs, he is barely able to obtain the necessities of life. He has an old beat-up car for which he buys gas by the gallon; the utilities and phone are often shut off for bill non-payment, and his diet is minimal at best. To get by, he sometimes works for an ex-cop by the name of Frank Gannon, who is now a PI. Mac doesn't like to work for Gannon; there's usually something he has to give up of himself to do the required jobs. When he meets with him for a new job, there's another guy in the room, a big man by the name of Augie. It's not love at first sight for either of them, or at least not until they both prove their mettle to one another.

Augie and Mac witness a man being killed. Mac's first instinct is to try to save him; Augie's is to follow the perpetrator. When he does so, he is seriously injured and Mac saves his life more than once as they deal with the situations that follow. Their bond is cemented at that point. While Augie is in the hospital, Mac takes on caring for his 15-year-old daughter, Tina. That leads to some real complications for Mac, as Tina brags that he is her lover (which is untrue) and the town reacts with disgust. At one point, Mac saves Tina from being raped by a gang of high school jocks. In his anger and rage, he seriously injures one of the boys, who is the son of the chief of police. That incident will lead to some long-term trouble for Mac.

Mac soon finds himself in over his head, and Gannon finds a way to bail him out. All Mac has to do is find a missing woman and return her to her family fold. Sounds simple enough, until he finds out what kind of family is involved, who the woman is and what the price will be to her if he does what is asked of him. Mac has a noble strain in his being, much to his detriment. He can't just do the job‹he becomes enmeshed in the humanity of the situation and that doesn't always end up being what has been asked of him.

I had a very odd reaction to this book. Since I had read the first book, The Bone Orchard, which actually follows this one in time, I already knew the ultimate outcome for several of Rose's characters. That diminished the dramatic tension considerably, since I knew that so-and-so survived, so-and-so ended up having various things happen to him, and the like. Therefore, when their lives were in danger in this book, I was not drawn into the suspense as if I had met them for the first time. In reality, the second book should be read first.

The Poisoned Rose also has strong echoes of The Bone Orchard in its style, to the point where they felt almost like the same book. Judson writes beautiful, lush prose, and I marked many passages for their stirring descriptive power. However, I could not believe in some of the basics of the character. Mac is a man who is an alcoholic, who doesn't take care of himself, has a poor diet and the like; yet, he is able to pulverize almost anyone with whom he ends up in a fight. The scenes of violence are wonderfully written, but just not credible at all. At one point, Mac is dragging around a guy that he is handcuffed to‹I don't think so!

There was very little joy around the main characters. Augie was destroyed by the past; Tina by the present and Mac had no future. It was all very grim and dark and depressing. I'm a great fan of noir, but the lack of any hope or chance of meaningful change made this a tough one to swallow.

Reviewed by Maddy Van Hertbruggen, October 2002

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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