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DEATH IS A CABARET
by Deborah Morgan
Berkley Prime Crime, November 2001
226 pages
$5.99
ISBN: 0425182029


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Deborah Morgan made my week. After spending days trying to find a good book, she came through. Death is a Cabaret is a darn good first mystery with lots to offer; good settings (including Seattle, where I live), things to learn (antiques, collecting) and some solid three-dimensional characters.

The protagonist, Jeff Talbot, is a former FBI agent, whose interest in art and antiques he comes by naturally, as he was raised in an antique-filled house. At the FBI, this made him an expert in missing art. He grew frustrated, however, at the paper pushing job that it became, and quit in order to have the thrill of actually hands-on finding the antiques in attics and barns and hidden places. So he's got law enforcement background, and some connections and smarts about crime, but has a much cooler job now. He's what is called an antiques picker, someone seeking antiques in every possible place, in order to sell them at a higher price to a shop owner, or to someone who specifically collects what he has found.

Recently, Jeff outsmarted another picker, Frank Hamilton. Frank's manner lost him a sale, and Jeff profited from Hamilton's smart-ass attitude. A few days later, in search of a major find (the "cabaret set" of the titled) at a major antiques event at the Grand Hotel on Michigan's Mackinac Island, Jeff is surprised to see Frank Hamilton again. Worse, Hamilton ends up dead.

A very impressively written side story to Death is a Cabaret is that of Jeff's wife. Sheila lives with agoraphobia, a very tough disabling condition, that makes it nigh on impossible to leave the house. In this day of the internet, with research, on-line and catalogue shopping, she has a world of places to go to, if vicariously. It's a tough situation to be in - being trapped at home when you have brains, talent, skills. Morgan handles it quite well - informative without being preachy, sympathetic without evoking pity. As someone who due to disability, has been trapped at home, and has at times relied on the internet for help in keeping in touch with the world, I was impressed by the author's decision to portray someone with this condition. She does it well and it adds a dimension to the story. While he feels bad, it never occurs to Jeff to be angry at Sheila -- he loves her completely and admires her. And while he doesn't always seem to get Sheila's agoraphobia, almost thinking that it can just go away, he does deal with it honestly and is not scared off by the limitations this disability brings with it.

There are some minor glitches here -- the occasional expository lump, where an awkward paragraph or two is provided to explain something. But it was minor stuff. Meanwhile, there are people dying on the very interesting historic Mackinac Island, at a gorgeous hotel with lovingly furnished rooms that appeals to the collector in Jeff Talbot, and which appealed to the non-collector in this reviewer. I was impressed with Death Is a Cabaret and am looking forward to the next book in this promising series.

Reviewed by Andi Shechter, June 2002

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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