The Drowning Tree

Rating:
Summary: an absorbing read
Review: "The Drowning Tree" may not be to the average mystery reader's taste because it is very introverted and a little slow-moving. However, it is a well written novel, and if you enjoy Ovid's "Metamorphoses," Pre-Raphaelite painting and a nice slowish-moving (but with lots of character development) mystery novel, you're bound to enjoy "The Drowning Tree."

While Juno McKay may still live and work in her small hometown, she's always tried to avoid attending any social functions at Penrose College, mostly because she failed to graduate (an unplanned pernancy) with her class, and because of the stunning and dramatic manner in which her young husband, Neil Buchwald, descended into madness two years into their marriage. But when her best friend, Christine Webb, uses their fifteenth class reunion as an opportunity to deliver a lecture on the Pre-Raphaelites and the Arts & Crafts movement and the impact that this movement had on the college's founders, Ambrose and Eugenie Penrose, Juno girds up her courage in order to attend. The lecture turns out to be both informative and controversial as Christine hints at the true nature of the relationship that Ambrose Penrose had with his sister-in-law, Claire (who later went mad and was confined at Briarwood, the very place that, almost 80 years later, Juno's husband, Neil, was institutionalized at), as well as delivering a different interpretation of the stained-glass window that Penrose had designed (now gracing the college's library), and which Juno's small glass company is about to repair and restore. But while the lecture may have gone down well, Juno senses that Christine is not all that happy. Something is disturbing Christine, but unfortunately the two friends don't have the time to have a real heart-to-heart before Christine has to leave to go back to the city. And a week later, Juno finds Christine's body in the sunken lake on the old, ruined Penrose estate. Because of her history with depression and substance abuse, everyone assumes that Christine has killed herself. But Juno is not so sure; and when, in the course of her research about the Penrose stained-glass window, she comes across Eugenie's diary, with entries that seem to suggest that the Penroses had one particularly big skeleton in their closet, a secret that someone may be willing to kill to protect, she begins to wonder about the connection between Christine and the Penroses...

Sedately paced and of a literary-bent (don't worry though, Carol Goodman is very good about not talking down to her audience), "The Drowning Tree" was a real treat to read. The novel is told almost exclusively from Juno's point-of-view, and in Juno, Carol Goodman has created a chief protagonist that almost anyone can relate to -- a very human woman with strengths as well as weaknesses. The authour fully immerses the reader into Juno's life and with her concerns, and this gave the novel a sense of immediacy which (fortunately) downplayed the moderate pacing quite a bit. I also enjoyed all the literary references to Ovid's "Metamorphoses" and the vivid descriptions of the art that portrayed in these myths. But what made this book truly amazing was the manner in which the subplots involving the Penroses in the past, Christine's murder and Briarwood Institution all get entwined into one lyrical whole, thus making "The Drowning Tree" both a very lyrical and memorable read indeed.

Rating:
Summary: No spark, no fizzle
Review: I enjoyed Goodman's first two academic gothic mysteries quite a lot but this one never even achieves sufficient spark to fizzle out. The book just never clicks, there's nothing for the reader to go for. Well, there is one thing and I thought it finest kind -- the underwater sculpture garden. That could have been so cool ... but, in the end, wasn't.

Rating:
Summary: Literary mystery entertains and inspires
Review: Some mystery writers just like to throw out the characters and weave them into a plot without frills. But Carol Goodman takes the mystery up a level or two and carves an entertaining but thought-provoking book in the process.

Ms. Goodman likes mythology and classic literature and art. She moves the plot along by using parallels from mythological tales such as Baucis and Philemon, two ancient lovers turned into a tree by Zeus who granted the couple's wish that they may die together and be guardians of Zeus's temple. This sounds heavy-handed, but it isn't. Such myths work well within the storyline.

The author builds her primary mystery around a painting that served as the model for an artsy stained-glass window at Penrose College. The narrator Juno McKay attended Penrose, but didn't graduate because she got pregnant and married her boyfriend Neil. Juno's story opens with a brief dream sequence, then segues into reality as she rushes to hear her best friend Christine give a lecture about the artist and other personalities associated with the painting/window.

There's a lot of action in the book, considering it's what I'd call a literary mystery. Juno's husband Neil is mentally ill, and has been in a long-term care facility since he tried to drown Juno and their daughter Beatrice years ago. Juno has several romantic interests, and the reader wonders who will triumph in the end, although one of the men's names is a dead giveaway.

Penrose college is one of those tony schools up North with hefty tuition and lofty expectations as well as a delicious scandal that unfolds. Several mysteries run concurrently, but are neatly wrapped up in the end.

Ms. Goodman manages to take on a bit of literary and artistic theory without boring the reader. One tool she uses to do this is an antique diary written by the alleged subject of the painting, Eugenie Penrose, who writes, "Think of how a mood is changed by our surroundings-how more harmonious is the life lived among beautiful things."

This mystery has the classic red herring, a well-constructed story-line, and a budding romance in addition to modern and historical love triangles. A primary theme in the book is water as both a giver and taker of life. The book is written by a thinker, by an author who obviously loves words, and is well-read in the classics important to Western civilization.

I'd recommend this book to any reader, because it will work for readers on different levels. Those who like to think about philosophy and art will appreciate it, as will those who simply want to be entertained. It's a breath of fresh air in the popular mystery field, and it's a great read to boot.