Author Cornelia Read classifies A FIELD OF DARKNESS as “WASP noir,” and I could not agree more. From the Mysterious Press, this the type of mystery I enjoy most: where many avenues are opened, leading to a slew of suspects.
The tale deals with Madeline Dare – a gun-toting ex-debutante who married a guy from the sticks – opening up an unsolved, 20-year-old case of two girls who were killed one night at the fair in 1969. In doing so, she figures out the murder holds some resemblance to an old Grimm’s fairy tale. The reason for her investigation is that her father-in-law has been sitting on what might be evidence, in the form of old dog tags that belong to one of Madeline’s cousins. This sets Madeline on a search to find out the truth, sniffing out leads in Syracuse, where she resides and works as a newspaper reporter. Throughout the book, as Madeline digs for clues, more bodies pile up – also with the Grimm bent – all while she tries to balance her marrige with a husband whose railroad job takes him away for long stretches of time. For those interested, I really can’t go further without spoiling the party.
I throughly enjoyed this novel, a nice change of pace to the normal things I peruse. Read writes these characters so well that you can see them in your mind, clear as day, and also doesn’t just potray the locals as bumpkins who fell off the turnip truck. Besides showing us the local flavor, we also meet Madeline’s family. She comes from divorced parents who enjoyed the 1960s a bit too much; her dad is a pothead living out of his truck at a gas station in California, where her once free-spirited mom moved back to Long Island during Madeline’s senior year.
If you check Read’s bio, you will see she has more than a few things in common with her main character. Let’s just hope she also has more mysteries in her, since this first book promises a bright future. Finally, any author that can name-drop the music she mentions will always be cool in my book. I got a great laugh out of her description of a Jerry Lee Lewis concert, since she hit the nail right on the head. She just needs to study up on her punk records a bit. –Bruce Grossman
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Thank you so much for writing such a kind review, Bruce–you are awesome and I love your take on the book.