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A Summer for Dying by Jamie Katz |
| (Avon, $5.99, NV) ISBN 0-06-109712-8 |
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Dan Kardon, Boston attorney, has agreed to represent an old friend of his lover and now law partner, Jenny Crane. Jerome Mann and his cousin Daryl, a young up and coming professional basketball star, have purchased a piece of land that was once a summer camp, and they hope to turn it back into a camp for inner city children. The town of Meadowbrook has already granted them a variance to turn part of the land into a golf course, but the zoning board refuses to agree to the camp. An environmental group claims to have spotted an endangered species of turtles on the Manns’ property, also slowing down the permit process.
The night before Jerome is going to fire his local attorney, Chuck Wells, Wells is killed and his office ransacked. At first, the Manns are not terribly disturbed by the murder as Wells had a reputation for hard living. Shortly after the Manns make a plea to the board and are turned down for a permit, however, Jerome is found shot to death. Just after his petition was turned down, Jerome began cutting water off to the town pond, turning neighboring backyards into swamps and lowering the property values, leaving the police no shortage of suspects. As Dan begins to ask questions around the town to find out where the strongest opposition to the camp lies, he realizes that there are people in the town who have secrets, and there are people who lord these secrets over them. After two attacks, Dan is more convinced than ever that the town’s secrets run very deep and realizes that if he can determine who had the most to lose by the camp opening up, he will be able to pinpoint the murderer. A Summer for Dying is a carefully thought out and plotted mystery with just the right amount of twists and turns and misleading clues to keep the reader guessing until the end. Even as the pieces begin to fall into place, the identity of the murderer is not apparent. Dan is an interesting character, and unfortunately, Jenny spends much of the book in Tennessee, caring for her aging, ill parents, but there are some interesting dynamics between the two. Jenny started out as Dan’s secretary and is a little unsure in her new role as equal plus her role as Dan’s lover. Jenny, by nature, is headstrong and assertive, which is a good contrast to the tentative way she sometimes approaches her new relationships. The other characters in the book are interesting, especially Daryl, who is sympathetic, without being pathetic. The only thing this book lacks is tension and a good pace. Even though the mystery is complex, it lulls the reader as it moves along. Interesting characters and a well-plotted novel make this second Dan Kardon novel a good basis for a long-lived series.
--Jennifer Monahan Winberry |
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