|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
Los Angeles literary agent Charlie Greene has a killer commute daily from Long Beach to Beverly Hills on the freeway. She eats breakfast, puts on her makeup, talks to agents and clients in New York and puts on pantyhose, while driving the 401. She is just settling in to her Long Beach cottage, determined to spend a quiet vacation week at home, when the cat from hell leads her to the body of one of the residents, Jeremy Fiedler in the seat of his pickup truck. The other residents find that they never really knew Jeremy. And when a bomb destroys the gate of their small compound, life gets even more complicated. The blast causes Charlie to lose her hearing, but the deafness becomes intermittent, which every doctor she consults tells her is impossible. Jeremy has left his cottage to an 83 year old resident of the compound, the first resident and original owner of the property, a Christian widow who would never lie to anyone. Or would she? And who was Jeremy Fiedler? There is no record of him ever having existed. No computer data. No driver's license. No automobile registration. No checking account. And he paid cash for his cottage. If the plot is thin, the characters more than make up for this lack. Charlie and her friends are cleverly drawn, from the widow, through her best friend the lawyer who is seeing a married man, through Charlie's nubile teen aged daughter and her friends, and Charlie's very gay, very handsome, very protective secretary. Although this book may not be the perfect mystery, it is a good read on a day when you need cheering up. Millheiser has written some very funny lines. It is decided to have a memorial service for Jeremy, and the residents of the compound, and some of the others think the beach is the best place to do so. Larry, Charlie's secretary, a wannabe actor, is to be the minister. He ignores the text written by Charlie and her best friend Maggie, and starts the service with "And God shall smite ye down with Jerry Falwell" followed by "As ye sew, so shall ye sleep.' while Charlie watches the crowd who eventually join in and add their own nonsense to the service, which turns into a "Monty Python Horror Picture Show"
Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, February 2003
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
|
