Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 11, 1990 TAG: 9003143289
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
By Susan Leslie. St. Martin's. $19.95.
Many years ago, I somewhat guiltily read what my future husband called "house books" in which the dwelling assumed full billing with the human characters. In these novels, which took place primarily in 19th century Britain, a young woman, gently born but fallen on hard times, goes to a remote grand house as governess/companion/researcher and discovers mysterious doings complete with at least one dark, brooding man; a hostile housekeeper; strange relatives; and, always, romance. "An Unfinished Tapestry" is a definite "house book."
The heroine, Lillith Chatfield, is a young woman of great beauty who has scarcely recovered from the sudden loss, at sea, of her father and younger brother, when she receives the news that her father's unwise investments have left her nothing and that she must make her own way. She accepts a vague offer of employment in the North Country at Darby Hall, and becomes enmeshed with the decidedly odd Darby family and its well-hidden secrets.
Here are two dark and brooding males, a horror of a housekeeper, a dead girl who seems to haunt Lillith and Darby Hall itself. Lillith changes clothes frequently and attempts to clear up all the mysteries. The title is clarified through her words, "It was as though someone had placed an unfinished tapestry and needle in my hand and was urging me to weave the tableau to completion. As much as I wanted to see the picture, I wondered if there was good reason to leave it unfinished."
I realize now why reading these left me feeling guilty. - HARRIET LITTLE
Black Cherry Blues
James Lee Burke. Little, Brown. $17.95.
Curses
By Aaron Elkins. Mysterious Press. $15.95.
Flame
By John Lutz. Henry Holt. $17.95.
These are current entries in established crime-story series - new adventures by Burke's Cajun detective Dave Robicheaux, Elkins' scholarly Gideon Oliver and Lutz's gimpy ex-cop, Fred Carver.
The Oliver and Carver stories are low-energy weekend reads. Oliver's is the more pleasant of the two, because Gideon (played on television by Louis Gossett Jr.) takes an amiable approach to hackneyed assignments. "Curses" is set in Yucatan, at the site of an ancient Mayan temple which is, of course, protected by an ancient curse.
"Flame" gets the downbeat, cynical Carver involved in hit- man murder and major-league drug trafficking along Florida's Atlantic coast. Lutz's style is vulgar and vivid; I sent "Curses" to my mother, but I wouldn't give "Flame" to anyone I was related to, or who lived in the country or was over 40.
The best of the lot is Burke's "Black Cherry Blues." His evocative, poetic style probably belongs in a better class of literature, but his gentle sadness at evil in the world reminds me of Raymond Chandler and Ross MacDonald. Robicheaux gets himself accused of murder in this one, and has to sleuth his way out of the bayou and all the way to a Blackfoot reservation in Montana before he gets shut out of it. - TOM SHAFFER
Babylon South
By Jon Cleary. William Morrow. $19.95.
Jon Cleary's new Scobie Malone novel introduces Australia's finest detective to a case involving the 21-year-old disappearance of a spy catcher, the intrigues of leveraged buy outs, a family right out of "Dynasty" and a police commissioner who has personal reasons to keep the entire investigation quiet. When Sir Walter Springfellow, head of Australian Intelligence, disappeared in 1966, a young Scobie Malone was the junior member of the investigation. When the body finally surfaces in 1987, Malone is put back on the case to discover what really happened.
Over the years, the Springfellow family has achieved prominence in financial circles, though a nasty proxy fight among family members threatens to undermine the entire family fortune. The publicity of the long-dead Sir Walter brings family resentments to the surface, and when Sir Walter's sister is found murdered, Malone is forced to solve two cases which may be connected. Malone's biggest problem is that the Police Commissioner seems to be involved in both crimes, and is pushing Malone to keep the investigations quiet.
Cleary's narrative skills and the ambiance of the Australian financial world meld together in this pleasing suspense mystery. If you read only one Scobie Malone novel, this should be it, but I don't think you'll be satisfied with just one. - LARRY SHIELD
by CNB