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BLOOD IN THE WATER
Kirkus Reviews
March 15, 2012
Thursday
HIGHLIGHT: You probably don't know the neighbors as well as you think
you do-not when they're this full of surprises. Everybody in Waldorf
Pines, a gated community aspiring to be ritzy, knows everything there
is to know about everybody else: Which
You probably don't know the neighbors as well as you think you do--not
when they're this full of surprises. Everybody in Waldorf Pines,
a gated community aspiring to be ritzy, knows everything there is to
know about everybody else: Which wife is bedding the pool boy, which
resident makes a nuisance of himself with ridiculous complaints, which
old biddies are lesbians and which teenager is a bona fide sociopath.
So when that pool boy is found dead in the pool and another body is
burned to ashes in the woman's locker room, the result of a fire that
incinerated most of the building, everyone, including the local cop,
assumes that Arthur Heydreich, the cuckolded husband, did it.
Immediately arrested, he must be released when DNA indicates that the
ashes are those of a man. Where then is his wife? Has she committed
a double homicide? And why? Gregor Demarkian, the Armenian Hercule
Poirot called in to make sense of matters, immediately realizes that
misdirection is the key to understanding the mystery. Accordingly,
he chats up the Waldorf Pines citizenry and uncovers many assumed
identities, much blackmailing, quite a few red herrings and a plot
twist so convoluted that even Demarkian's hyper-smart wife Bennis
can't quite follow it. Not top-of-the-line Haddam (Flowering Judas,
2011, etc.) but still enjoyable, like a night out doing nothing
special with old friends
Kirkus Reviews
March 15, 2012
Thursday
HIGHLIGHT: You probably don't know the neighbors as well as you think
you do-not when they're this full of surprises. Everybody in Waldorf
Pines, a gated community aspiring to be ritzy, knows everything there
is to know about everybody else: Which
You probably don't know the neighbors as well as you think you do--not
when they're this full of surprises. Everybody in Waldorf Pines,
a gated community aspiring to be ritzy, knows everything there is to
know about everybody else: Which wife is bedding the pool boy, which
resident makes a nuisance of himself with ridiculous complaints, which
old biddies are lesbians and which teenager is a bona fide sociopath.
So when that pool boy is found dead in the pool and another body is
burned to ashes in the woman's locker room, the result of a fire that
incinerated most of the building, everyone, including the local cop,
assumes that Arthur Heydreich, the cuckolded husband, did it.
Immediately arrested, he must be released when DNA indicates that the
ashes are those of a man. Where then is his wife? Has she committed
a double homicide? And why? Gregor Demarkian, the Armenian Hercule
Poirot called in to make sense of matters, immediately realizes that
misdirection is the key to understanding the mystery. Accordingly,
he chats up the Waldorf Pines citizenry and uncovers many assumed
identities, much blackmailing, quite a few red herrings and a plot
twist so convoluted that even Demarkian's hyper-smart wife Bennis
can't quite follow it. Not top-of-the-line Haddam (Flowering Judas,
2011, etc.) but still enjoyable, like a night out doing nothing
special with old friends