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Antigone Musing (Tig) is a professor in the science department at the small New England institution of Clare College. Her brother, Hiawatha Musing (Hi), is a professor of English at a midwestern college, presently visiting his sister while participating in a conference at Clare. Just as he arrives, in fact, Clare is rocked with the shocking discovery of human remains buried in the basement of an old building. It turns out to be the body of a faculty wife who everyone thought had abandoned her husband and son ten years previously. The dead woman's son is a student of Tig's and she is drawn into the investigation of this murder, rather improbably, because the police ask her to talk with her student and see if she can find out something that would help them. There are some flashes of promise in this book. It's hard not to like an author who can reasonably incorporate the word "incunabulaphiles", and I liked this observation, describing a long-married pair who despised each other: "the couple had remained together from a deep-seated, though never acknowledged, fear that they were unlikely to appeal to anyone else." Oo, ouch. However, it is not an unalloyed joy to read. It is excessively discursive, really interfering with the flow of the narrative. There are many long rambling passages of analysis, on the nature of life in Academia, on the habits and state of mind of the characters, but these are all observations at a distance. There is no immediacy in our relationship with the principals, no identification with their feelings, no sense that we really know them. Although we are frequently told Tig is "a scientist", we don't even know what sort of science she does until a mention, near the end of the book, of a lecture on resonance (ah, physics, then). When the narrative takes a sudden wrenching turn from the progress of the mystery to detour through a sadly unpleasant scene in Hi and Tig's family life, we are subjected to that uncomfortable "I don't belong here" feeling you get when acquaintances engage in a bitter fight in your presence. I found the mystery itself mildly interesting but ultimately disappointing, again because of the lack of connection to the relevant characters. Although there are a few nice touches, and a certain, I don't know, goodheartedness about it, in all I have to say that I found this book clumsy and unengaging. Following is a note from the author: Dear Editors, While I do not habitually address critical assessments of my writing, I would like to point out that in your October issue, Diana Sandberg's crabbed and begrudging review of my first mystery novel, Grave Circle, included a misstatement. Antigone Musing is referred to explicitly, on Page 20, as "a professor of chemistry." For a reader to express the desire for more insight into Tig's scientific work is a fair request; but Sandberg's statement that "although we are frequently told Tig is 'a scientist', we don't even know what sort of science she does" is inaccurate. Thank you, David D. Nolta
Reviewed by Diana Sandberg, October 2003
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