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FALL INTO DEATH
by Emily Toll
Berkley Prime Crime, May 2004
304 pages
$6.50
ISBN: 0425196941


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Travel agent Lynne Montgomery wants to lead a trip to New England to view the foliage. Her 82-year-old mother Priscilla has recently purchased a house which she is making into a bed and breakfast and insists that this would be an ideal place for the tour participants to stay.

Lynne and her grown daughter Jenna go east from California to scout for the future trip and also to check out Priscilla who might be spending too much money that she does not have and also might be getting in deeper than she can physically handle.

One of the jobs that needs to be done in the B & B is replacing the pipes in the basement. They are encased in concrete so first the concrete must be broken up. Lynne inspects what is being done and finds what she is pretty sure is a human bone in the concrete. Naturally all work stops while the police are called to investigate.

While they travel about New England, Lynne and Jenna also quietly do some investigation into the crime and the victims once their names are known. While the police do most of the work, it is Lynne's contributions that make it possible to arrive at the final solution.

The most enjoyable part of a quite enjoyable book is the description of the historical, literary, or just plain beautiful sites in the area. I truly felt that I had taken a trip and seen these things myself when I finished the book. The various museums and homes become so very real to the reader. This will be appealing to people who have never been to New England as well as to those who live there or who have visited already. It was a really painless way of finding out information about an area that has always fascinated me.

The main characters are well-developed and enjoyable people. Lynne is mostly no-nonsense and highly organized, as befits one who makes her living planning and leading tours. But in her mother's presence, like all of us, she becomes a little like a child again. She enjoys getting to interact with her daughter on an adult level. Jenna is a 26-year-old who has not decided yet what she wants to do with her life. After college she went to work in a book store which is hardly the career she had in mind.

Priscilla, three times widowed, is used to being taken care of but perversely resents any interference in what she is doing with her money. Finally, Priscilla's sister Abigail has been independent all her life, has no problem telling Priscilla and everyone else what to do, and would not be an easy person to know at all.

The plot is well done, although mystery purists may object to all the traveling and looking at various interesting places as not forwarding the plot. I liked it myself. But I had no idea who might have killed the victims or even why they might have been killed until Lynne and the police discovered it and told me.

This is a delightful book, easy to read, well-written, with all kinds of interesting information for the reader. It isn't going to challenge you or confuse you or force you to reassess all your thoughts. That is not the purpose of it. It will amuse and entertain you and books like that are of great value.

Reviewed by Sally Fellows, April 2004

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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