Beach Reading

Family ties and poetic suspense

REVIEW BY BONNIE ARANT ERTELT

So, you think your family is difficult? Meet the Smallwoods. Georgie, the narrator of Lynn Hightower's latest novel, has never shaken the scandal she caused in the small, picturesque town of Beaufort, South Carolina, by having a child out of wedlock at age 16. Her son, Hank, ran away from home at 15, and she has searched high and low for him for two years. Her brother Ashby long ago saw his dreams of a successful business career dashed by severe dyslexia. Now making his living as a shrimper, he is the only person in the family content in a relationship - with Reese, a former football player. Everyone loves sister Claire - except her husband, whom she has finally turned out after a loveless decade of marriage. Then there are the parents: Fielding Smallwood is a bitter, brutal man, an ex-marine whose command decision years earlier resulted in the death of seven young men in training, forcing him to leave the branch of service he loved. And Lena, the beloved matriarch of this family, has put up with Fielding only because she has long been having an affair with the Beaufort chief of police. Fielding and Lena make only brief appearances in the novel, but their presence is felt long after their untimely and highly suspicious deaths, one after the other.

Out of such tangled family ties, Hightower could have fashioned a black comedy instead of a suspense novel. However, what she has written has the lyrical quality of literature. She finds the poignancy of a family turned against itself in the stifling and frequently suffocating confines of a southern coastal tourist town. She concentrates not on the difficulties that separate these characters, but on the ways they are bound together and indelibly imprinted on each other, making their complicated lives seem entirely real. Hightower's use of flashbacks in which Georgie recalls some particular childhood memory elucidates Georgie's point of view, but also moves the story along, in the same way that the past always helps make sense of the present. The book does not sacrifice beauty of language to plot; the two serve each other well. Who would think a suspense thriller could be poetic?

None of this comes as a surprise when one realizes that Hightower studied with the poet Wendell Berry at the University of Kentucky. The author of six previous novels, including Satan's Lambs, which won the Shamus Award for Best First P.I. Novel, Hightower's abilities as a storyteller are amply evident in this tale of a southern family united by one death and ripped apart by another.

Bonnie Arant Ertelt is a writer living in Nashville.


When the sleuth is a shrink

REVIEW BY C.L. ROSS

As Keith Ablow's Compulsion opens, we meet Massachusetts psychiatrist Dr. Frank Clevenger, who is haunted by an encounter two years earlier with a maniacal mental patient (described in grisly detail in Ablow's Projection). This shattering experience has left him weary and disillusioned. Wanting to keep his distance from violence and death, he has sworn off consulting on forensic cases.

Clevenger, a victim of childhood abuse, is a complex character. His list of excesses, including smoking, gambling, drugs, alcohol and rescuing troubled women, could fill a textbook. Attempting to stay sober and sane, he substitutes coffee and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle for scotch and cocaine. Never married, his choices in women are questionable, running the gamut from society damsels-in-distress to disrobed dames in seedy strip clubs. Can Clevenger keep his own demons at bay while helping others deal with theirs?

Enter the wealthy, socially prominent, politically powerful and profoundly dysfunctional Bishop family of Nantucket. North Anderson, Nantucket's chief of police, enlists Clevenger's help when one of the Bishop's twin babies is murdered. Against his better judgment, Clevenger is drawn into the murder investigation. Thus begins the first link in a violent chain of events as he delves deeper into the Bishop family's disturbing secrets. He risks everything to confront the evil side of human nature. How far can you walk in darkness without losing your way forever? Frank Clevenger is about to find out.

Compulsion allows us to explore Frank's psyche, as well as those of the characters he encounters as he attempts to match wits with a psychopath. The protagonist is flawed but driven to deliver justice; the villain is suitably frightening. Ablow's strong characterizations extend to the supporting cast, who are just as complicated and entertaining. The author, a practicing forensic psychiatrist, uses his extensive knowledge of mental illness and violence to lend authenticity to Compulsion, weaving a suspenseful mystery around riveting insights into the criminal mind. This latest addition to the Frank Clevenger series is an engrossing thriller that belongs on your summer reading list.

C.L. Ross reads, writes and reviews in Pismo Beach, California.


A fetching tale of modern romance

REVIEW BY AMY SCRIBNER

In an age of whiny novels about 30-something "singletons" whose sole goal in life seems to be snagging a decent man, Must Love Dogs is a refreshing antidote. Yes, 40-year-old Sarah Hurlihy is edging back into dating after a particularly nasty divorce, and yes, she wants to meet the right man. But author Claire Cook flips the same tired story upside down, serving up a hilariously original tale about dating and its place in a modern woman's life.

Sarah's life centers around two things: her job as a preschool teacher and her family. Her overbearing Boston Irish siblings walk into her house without knocking to grill her on her love life and grumble about their own. But their efforts to set her up yield consistently gloomy results. A blind date to a family lobster bake ends in an exchange of profanity after her dopey date, all dressed up for the occasion in a sailor hat and shiny loafers, gets a little too familiar.

So sister Carol goes proactive, placing a want ad on Sarah's behalf. Sarah halfheartedly juggles the responses, furtively donning a pink boa to boost her confidence before she calls a potential candidate. In truth, Sarah admits, she'd rather be watching Brady Bunch reruns and eating macaroni and cheese prepared with wine (a surprisingly good dish discovered after she runs out of milk).

Some of the men she meets are losers, a few aren't bad and one is quite promising, but Sarah still must decide what it is she's looking for in a relationship. Is it really as simple as placing an ad and insisting that her soul mate must love dogs?

Cook's previous novel, Ready to Fall, was well-received, partly for its innovative construction: the story was told completely through the main character's e-mails. Must Love Dogs relies on no such device and doesn't need it. Reading about Sarah Hurlihy's travails is like talking to a comedic self-deprecating friend. Cook's humor breezes through the pages as she details the perils - and perks - of plunging back into the dating scene.

Amy Scribner is a writer in Washington, D.C.

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