- Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Ballantine Books; Reissue edition (April 24 1993)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0345376579
- ISBN-13: 978-0345376572
- Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 1.8 x 17.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 136 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #307,871 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Kirkus Reviews
Something completely different from the author of the popular, ever-so-British Inspector Jury mysteries (The Old Contemptibles, etc.). This time the setting is small-town America, the mystery is secondary (a psycho serial-killer of sporadic interest), and the emphasis instead is on earnest character-studies that never quite add up. The primary character under scrutiny is Maud Chadwick, a divorc‚e in her late 40s who works as a diner waitress in sleepy La Porte, a town somewhere considerably ``up north'' from N.Y.C. Maud, dreamy and depressed, spends her free time obsessing about son Chad, 20, whose increasing adult-ness and separate-ness devastate her. She whiles away her summer evenings sitting at the end of her backyard pier--fantasizing about the rich summerfolk who party across the lake, puzzling over Wallace Stevens's poetry, and chatting (edgily yet amiably) with La Porte's sheriff, Sam DeGheyn, himself lonely in his lousy marriage to unfaithful Florence. Sam, meanwhile, has his own obsession: the savage murders of four local ``loose women'' over the past few years, crimes not solved to Sam's satisfaction (despite the conviction of young ``Boy'' Chalmers for some of the killings). And indeed Grimes introduces us, without naming names, to the real psycho-killer, through run-of-the-mill interior monologues. She also interjects--with far less coherence-- a long episode in which young Chad visits the stately home of a decadent college-pal and gets entangled in the family's glitzy, dreary pathology. (This section reads like a watery American imitation of Brideshead Revisited.) At its best, atmospheric psychological suspense reminiscent of L.R. Wright. At its worst, a pretentious mishmash: though linked by a theme (parent-child relationships), the pieces don't fit satisfyingly together--and Maud's ultra-sensitivity has limited appeal. Still, Grimes writes fetchingly at times, has a large following (much of which will be plenty disappointed), and a first printing of 100,000 copies is planned. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Book Description
In a sleepy resort town, Maud Chadwick waits tables at the Rainbow Cafe. Her confidant is Sheriff Sam DeGheyn and what they have in common is obsession. Maude doesn't want her son to leave home, and Sam cannot let go of the unsolved murders of three local women -- or his intuition that the killer is still out there. How these lives intertwine reveals a rich and startling story of parents and children and the pain they cause one another.
"Gripping."
CHICAGO SUN TIMES
"Gripping."
CHICAGO SUN TIMES
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
The Rainbow Cafe treated any day before a holiday like big money. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
The Rainbow Cafe treated any day before a holiday like big money. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Extremely disappointing,
By Erika R. (Hamilton, Ontario) - See all my reviews
This review is from: End of the Pier (Mass Market Paperback)
My first Martha Grimes mystery, and I expected much more from what others told me about this author. The plot was confusing, there were too many people with names like Bubba drinking too many Buds. Unless this is very different from her usual style, I wouldn't read her again.
3.0 out of 5 stars
A pleasant non-masterpiece,
By
This review is from: End of the Pier (Mass Market Paperback)
This is a standard mystery/suspense novel with one or two diverting ideas. Maude, the heroine, has some quirky thoughts which she tries to share with sheriff Sam. But Sam is a standard linear-thinking male who finds Maude's ideas perplexing. Their conversations toward the begininning of the book were for me the most interesting part of the novel. Unfortunately, once the action starts, Grimes pretty much drops the conversational sparring between Maude and Sam. This is just one example if the disjointedness mentioned by a previous reviewer. Many pages of the novel seem mostly unrelated to the mystery itself. So it is not a well-constructed mystery, but it is pleasant enough, with no obvious giveaway of the ultimate solution. It ends with one of those annoying long speeches by the guilty party, explaining to the intended final victim just how all the previous murders had been committed, and speaking just long enough for the cavalry to arrive. But this one has a slightly different twist to it. If you're a Grimes fan or just looking for a lazy way to pass some time, this is worth reading.
3.0 out of 5 stars
A disjointed effort,
By
This review is from: End of the Pier (Mass Market Paperback)
I liked the earlier Hotel Paradise, apart from the deliberately obscure ending. This novel, featuring the same locale and at least one character, was disappointing in a different way. It reads like a first draft, and although the ending is understandable, there are a lot of unanswered questions left pending, particularly about the motivations of the various characters.
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