A serendipitous encounter placed this book in my lap. It is, I believe, the first book in what I hope will be a series of murder mysteries set on the perfectly picturesque coast of Maine. My fondness for this genre obviously precedes me and I am happy to say that, with a few tweaks, this will be a great series.
The protagonist is supposedly a young, blind horticulturist, who literally trips over a body, and then figures out “who-done-it.”My one caveat: do not believe this back-of-the-book synopsis. While this may be something to aim for in future books and is perhaps a small editing hiccup, it oversimplifies this story.
In “Swannsong,” there are many protagonists and they are absolutely all worth hearing from.
Initially I was concerned that there were too many proverbial cooks in the kitchen. Each character is individually diverting and I found it hard to keep them straight and to find a central opinion. A more selective narration will be a plus. It is a testament to Anne Blair Kloman that It did not take long to overcome this and really start to enjoy the setting and the plot.
The veneer of a lovely bastion of wealthy waspdom is cracked open when the difficult matriarch is found dead.
As the purveyor of the Swann family money, Bea has lorded over the family compound on the coast of Maine. Her two sons( Ian, Colin), their partners (Graham, Grace), her errant daughter (Robin), her niece (Emily), the two greenhouse employees (Thea, Hannah), her lawyer (Stuart) and her grandchildren (Clay, Carrie), among others, all find her obstreperous for varying reasons.
Mrs Kloman paints a really lovely portrait of moneyed Maine. Blooming hydrangea, weathered clapboard, terrace breakfasts, it is all entrancing … whacking and poisoning aside. When Beatrice Swann turns up dead after an elaborately snazzy but morose family birthday dinner, things start to get interesting. When her son Colin is murdered as well, it gets better still. Well, worse for Colin, of course, but better for the reader.
Who is killing off the Swann family and why? Money? Power? Lust? All of the above of course. The web of deceit and extrapolation involves everyone.
Hannah and Stuart go to Australia to trail the missing daughter Robin. Mac and his partner, Watty are handling the policework. Emily, Graham, Ian, and Grace all appear to go on as usual which strikes a mildly discordant note. Things in the Swann family are more unsettled than we thought …
Even the grandchildren are involved in sordid activities by association. There are many many roads down which to venture. Questions lurk behind every Rosa Rugosa. Anne Kloman certainly has the goods to keep us entranced, but we need to be careful navigating a veritable cornucopia of information.
The benefit of multiple first person narratives is a panoramic view. The danger is lack of focus leading to a great disparity of relevant facts. If Thea is to be touted as the protagonist, as she is on the book jacket, we should see it predominantly from her perspective. She is one of many characters, luckily all extremely likable and/or interesting, but not the stand out. In fact, Thea is really the only one from whom we don’t hear a lot. I would happily have read loads more about her. She, like the others, is very developable.
I would not dream of spilling the beans as I highly recommend “Swannsong” to anyone who loves a good mystery, but I hope to see Thea (or even Hannah, Mac or Stuart) as a slightly more focused, integral gumshoe in the future. Every mystery needs a facilitator. This is a marvelous mix of horticulture, personality, setting and mystery. With a few leadership modifications, it is the start of a considerably satisfying series.