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MYSTERIES by Annette Keuning
SAMPLE NOT RELEASED FOR PUBLICATION
Honey-Dew, by Louise Doughty (Scribner, $17 paperback)
We bolt our doors to keep danger out, but sometimes the real threat comes
from within - from a family member who finds life unbearable and needs one
last push to explode into violence.
This is the theme of British writer Louise Doughty's third novel, a gem of a
book that explores the brutal stabbing deaths of a fifty something couple in
rural England. With no signs of forced entry to the house, police focus
their efforts on finding the couple's 17-year-old daughter, Gemma, who has
disappeared.
But the book isn't about the police investigation. The main focus is on a
neighbour of the dead couple, a woman named Alison who is a reporter for the
local weekly newspaper. Alison decides to do some digging of her own to get
at the truth behind the murders.
Using flashbacks and first-person narratives, the story shifts between
Alison (there are dark secrets in her family as well), Gemma, the murdered
woman, and Alison's mother.
Honey-Dew fits the class of literary mystery, but the plot is effective,
too, particularly the chilling exploration of Gemma's claustrophobic family
life.
Double Helix, by Anthony Hyde (Viking, $32)
Anthony Hyde has written some very fine thrillers, notably China Lake and
The Red Fox. His latest, Double Helix, falls short of that mark.
The story opens as a Canadian stockbroker named Deborah Graham is visiting
Venice. One moonlit night, she meets a mysterious, dark-haired man. It turns
out that he is doctor, born in Toronto, the city where Graham lives. He
works for a foundation that funds medical aid projects in the developing
world. They fall in love.
Back at work in Toronto, Graham gets a call from a client who wants to buy
stock in a biotechnology company. She suspects he has inside information,
but after checking with officials at her company, buys the stock for him.
The stock's value jumps.
Then the client is murdered. Police figure he died within minutes of
completing his phone call to Graham. Coincidence? Graham thinks so, but then
odd things start happening: her doctor boyfriend, away on business in
Brazil, goes missing, and she finds a man snooping in his apartment. More
suspiciously, she discovers that her boyfriend's foundation has links to the
biotech company, which has made a vaccine that ensures women give birth only
to males. Graham doesn't know what to make of her boyfriend now.
It's refreshing to see a female protagonist in a thriller, but there are
several problems. The action lags in places as Graham agonizes about what is
going on and tries not to panic. Also, the vaccine conspiracy element
doesn't live up to its potential. But my biggest beef is with one scene in
which a woman doctor who teams up with Graham is subjected to a horrible
attack. Amazingly, a few pages later she seems to have recovered quite
nicely, and is ready to go after the bad guys again.
Annette Keuning is a Halifax writer and can be reached by e-mail at
syndication@canada.com
Copyright (c) 1999 Annette Keuning
Distributed by Writers Syndication Services
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