Customer Reviews

C. B. Greenfield: No Lady in the House

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Lucille Kallen was a writer's writer. No quibbles possible. She writes with lucidity and perception and such dry wit that you could almost wish to be reading in the rain. Or snow, whichever. Her alter ego in these books is Maggie Rome, a 40-something wife and mother who lives in suburban Connecticut, an amateur pianist and reporter for her local weekly newspaper.

C. B. Greenfield, (Charlie to his friends) whose name adorns most of the titles of the books written by Ms. Kallen, is the owner and publisher of said weekly newspaper, The Sloan's Ford Reporter. He is also a cellist, and with various other members of their small community, they meet once a week to make music together. In between the musical happenings, life in a small town continues, mirroring life in a big city, even to crime waves and municipal finagling.

This time around, it's the sale of an old school building that originally stirs up the natives, but it's really only a screen behind which more sinister doings take place. The solution takes Maggie to New York City and other suburban communities in the area, before finally she and Charlie head off to Florida for the evidence needed to solve the small-town crimes.

Nothing jars in this taut, exceptionally well-written novel. The characters are so alive, they nearly jump off the page at you, and every plot element is entirely plausible. It's so unfortunate that Ms. Kallen could not have written more of these wonderful books before her premature death some years ago. We just have to cherish those she did write.