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Margaret Riley, ninety years old, leads a withdrawn and simple life in the Tennessee mountains. Her body has become slow and halting but her mind craves stimulation. She takes out five new mysteries from the local library every week and has limited contact with local residents in the Sewanee area. When a much younger woman with a little boy rents the long-empty house across the pond from Margaret's house, Margaret watches her closely and gradually realizes that the woman, Jennifer Young, is hiding something important about her past. Margaret becomes a detective like those in the novels she reads and sets out to discover what it is about Jennifer's past that is so awful that she must keep it secret.
As Margaret develops a relationship with Jennifer through the ruse and then the pleasure of hiring her to give her frequent massages in Margaret's home, she decides additionally to hire Jennifer to help her document and organize her memories of being a nurse in World War II to leave to her heirs. Thus, as Margaret ferrets out what she can about Jennifer, she reveals her own hidden past and finds that this is something that she wants (needs?) to do before she dies.
This ninety-year-old is somewhat obsessive and very determined but her character is strongly delineated and rings true psychologically throughout the novel. Leah Stewart is wonderfully capable of drawing for the reader the interior life of an aged woman as well as that of the middle- aged mother fleeing her past. A third woman, Jennifer's grown daughter Zoe, appears late in the story and she too is masterfully presented with all of her flaws and longings.
What struck me most forcefully about this wonderfully crafted work was the memory it sparked in me of a film I saw when I was in high school. WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION was based on a short story by Agatha Christie and the foundation Christie laid built suspense like nothing I had ever seen before. So tightly woven were the elements of setting, character, and plot that a later, second viewing was better than the first even though I already knew the resolution of the mystery.
THE NEW NEIGHBOR works every bit as well. The first reading allowed me to rush through, eagerly devouring the story line. The second reading allowed me to see and appreciate Stewart's writing genius.
I look forward to many more novels from her.
§ Diana Borse is retired from teaching English at Texas A&M University-Kingsville and savoring the chance to read as much as she always wanted to.
Reviewed by Diana Borse, July 2015
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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