After failing in Floating Dragon and Shadowland to match the
consummate horrors of Ghost Story, Straub switched genres to punch
out a bright mess of a thriller in 1987's Koko. Here's another
switch - and another honorable semifailure - as he attempts to
recapitulate the history of the mystery novel via the elegant,
languid, drawn-out story of a boy and his encounter with a Great
Detective and a Great Crime. Tom Pasmore, scion of one of the
richest families on the Caribbean island of Mill Walk, is the boy
who - in a nightmare-vivid opening that proves the novel's zenith -
is hit by a car and has a profound near-death experience.
Hospitalized, Tom is visited by a neighbor who gives him books by
Conan Doyle and Poe - and who thus steers Tom into a teen-long
obsession with detection. Seven years later, amateur p.i. Tom,
looking into a local killing, re-meets that neighbor: he's Lamont
von Heilitz, "The Shadow," once a world-famous detective, now a
recluse, a dandy who has worked as much by intuition as by
deduction. Taking him under his wing, Lamont trains Tom, then
instructs him to dig into possible crime and corruption -
particularly, an ancient murder - within Mill Walk's tangled social
circles while summering at an exclusive resort habituated by the
rich of Mill Walk. There, Tom steals away the beautiful girlfriend
of the scion of the all-powerful Redwing family; alienates that
family (much Straubian tracing of social mores here) by that act
and by his nosing around; and is shot at, then nearly killed in an
arson. Who's the culprit? Someone close to Tom - confronted, after
a twist of fate and a tragic death that force Tom into instant
maturity, in a bloody climax set in the Boschean slums of Mill
Walk. An ambitious homage, sluggishly engaging but no classic: the
complex intrigue suffocates suspense and emotional power, and
Lamont's no Holmes - or even Miss Marple. (Kirkus Reviews)
A dark, haunting, multi-layered story of detection and suspense
from the acclaimed author of Koko, The Talisman and Mr X. First
published in 1990 and now reissued in a new cover style. On the
tiny Caribbean island of Mill Walk, the rich play tennis, polo and
golf, trying to ignore the distasteful realities of life. So when
Tom Pasmore, the grandson of a powerful establishment figure,
develops a passion for detective work - particularly murder cases -
his reputation undergoes a subtle darkening. One murder in
particular fascinates Tom - the 1925 killing of Jeanine Thielman at
Eagle Lake, a resort patronized only by the cream of the island's
upper crust community. But when he starts investigating the case,
Tom arouses much more than mere disapproval. On the edge of a web
of corruption, deceit and violence, he is in danger of uncovering
the darkest secrets of the people who own and run Mill Walk.
General
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