Customer Reviews

Cheating at Solitaire: A Gregor Demarkian Novel (Gregor Demarkian Mysteries)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Having read every Gregor Demarkian mystery, I was anxioiusly awaiting the latest installment, Cheating at Solitaire. Previous volumes were devoured like a box of gourmet chocolates, often in one long weekend orgy of indulgence. The author seems to favor the isolation of snowstorms and ice bound landscapes to keep her characters locked in place, and Cheating at Solitaire dares to bring her favorite clime to a New England island not usually associated with drastic winter weather. The setting and main characters were the first disappointment of many, unfortunately.

Perhaps it is because I live in New England, home to the real Martha's Vineyard that I took offense at the amateurish disguise of the island and its main town. The weak attempt at renaming the places was not worthy of a talented and seasoned author. The population of post-pubescent non-talents was a cheap take off on current headlines worthy of only tabloid journalism. The supporting cast, unmemorable. Their constant inner musings were boring, pointless and did little or nothing to move the plot forward. The "perfect" former science fiction series hero and the reclusive author have no chemistry and it is a mystery itself as to why they were given so great a share of the book.

The only reason I plodded through this seemingly knock-off of previous Demarkian installments was to find out how the relationship between Gregor and Bennis was playing out. That, too, was a disappointment. The only revealing feature was that I now have insight into each of their ages. (I always suspected that Gregor was younger in actual years than he is in spirit and self-appraisal.)

I felt betrayed by the poor quality of Ms. Haddam's plot and writing after all these years. Could it be that, like others with a long character-driven series, she has abandoned the effort and the publisher has enlisted ghost writers to bring in the bucks?

One final question concerning the overall "style": what is the reference to the title? All previous titles tied in to the setting or the crime. (If anyone can explain the significance of "cheating at soliatire," I would be grateful for at least that.)

When Gregor Demarkian is asked to come to Martha's Harbor to investigate the murder of a young man attached to a film crew, nothing in Gregor's background prepares him for what he finds.

The usually quiet private island has celebrities and media people everywhere. Whereas the locals have little use for the media, and the rich summer people shun publicity of any kind, the film people crave media attention-often doing outrageous things just to generate news. Then a local photographer is attacked, and a summer resident who was hanging around with the film people ends up dead, too. While there are many rivalries among the crew, there seems to be very few real motives for murder. Eventually Gregor realizes that in spite of the glitz and glamour, the motives for murder remain the same regardless of class.

This is essentially a "country house" mystery. The key players are on an island cut off from the mainland by a storm when the first murder is committed, so the potential suspect list is limited. It won't take readers long to mentally substitute Martha's Vineyard or Bar Harbor for Martha's Harbor, or celebrities such as Britney Spears or Paris Hilton, for the main characters.

The book is as much a commentary on our society's celebrity worship and celebrities 'extravagant lifestyles as it is a mystery. While Haddam shows the lack of connection to real life of these celebrities (many are high school dropouts-and don't wear underwear), she also reminds readers about the differences in Gregor and Bennis's backgrounds and how differently they view the world. Bennis Hannaford, is a member of a Philadelphia Mainline family--a family much like the summer rich on the island. Bennis's family is as removed from Gregor's background as the summer people are from the locals on the island.

Fans of Haddam's series should be pleased not only with this book as a mystery, but the with glimpse into Gregor and Bennis's personal relationship.

Armchair Interviews says: Readers unfamiliar with the series will have no trouble enjoying this book.

It is a rare author who can keep things fresh and interesting after 22 books in a series, and Haddam, unfortunately, is not that author. This book is very much going through the motions. Even the names of places and characters are stupendously unoriginal -- Margaret's Harbor instead of Martha's Vineyard, Stewart Gordon instead of Patrick Stewart... etc. The characters are cardboard cutouts, no depth at all.

The mystery is mildly interesting, but that's all. For goodness sake, don't buy the hardcover -- get it at the library, or at least wait for the paperback.

This book was a serious disappointment to me. As a long-time fan of the Gregor Demarkian books, I've come to expect them to be intriguing and insightful stories. Jane Haddam has a real gift for getting the reader inside the minds of people whose perspective we're usually unfamiliar with. Whether it's conspiracy theory junkies, prep school teachers, nuns, whoever, she gets you into their heads and you get a chance to see the world through their eyes, and learn about what makes them tick. And you (and Gregor) need to gain that insight in order to follow the plot through to its solution.

Unfortunately, in this book, her chosen target group is minor pop stars. Y'know, the ones who seem so superficial and ridiculous when you read about their antics in the tabloid headlines at the grocery store checkout counter. After slogging through this entire book, Jane Haddam has shown me their perspective, and I've learned that guess what... they're superficial and ridiculous.

Since there's no real psychological insight to be gained in this story, either by the reader or by Gregor, Gregor just plods along pretty mechanically to solve the crime.

Long-time Gregor Demarkian fans, feel free to skip this one. You won't even miss out on any significant new installment in the Gregor/Bennis love saga, since pretty much all it covers is that the wedding preparations get hectic, so Gregor gets out of town.

I've read several of the prior Gregor Demarkian novels, and I've enjoyed each of them. When I first read the blurb on the back of this one, I thought it sounded great. Celebrities, murder, a "snowed-in" setting - what more could you want in a mystery?

Well, it turns out that what I want is my afternoon back. This book was terrible. Really, really bad. The characters were nothing more than thinly-disguised caricatures of real-life celebrities, the dialogue was terrible, and the plot made no sense at all. Furthermore, the author resorts to a "deux ex machina" ending where she has the detective just magically solve the mystery without any explanation of how he figured it out. As to the particulars of that ending, I don't want to spoil the book for those people who are going to be unfortunate enough to read it in the future, so all I will say is that the motivation of the murderer was really weak, and the actions of the "second criminal" were downright insensible. Really, this is one of the most poorly-written books I've read in a long time.

In addition, I found the author's gratuitous inclusion of a graphically-described sexual act perpetrated on one of the murder victims in really poor taste. I'm not a prude, and I don't mind reading descriptions of sex (or even of sexual assault) in books if they are relevant to the plot or characterization. This scene, however, did absolutely nothing to advance any part of the novel; in fact, it was one of the most incredible (in the true sense of the word) sections of the book. Given the inclusion of this scene, as well as the huge number of times she refers back to it in future passages, I can only assume that the author thinks that writing about this kind of thing will make readers think that she's "hip" or "edgy" when in fact it made this reader (at least) think she's just distasteful.

If it hadn't been assigned for my book club, I would have never gotten past the first chapter. Dull, repetitive--as if the author didn't have faith in the reader to remember the plot. None (not one) of the characters were sympathetic so I had no interest in what happened to any of them. The words "idiot" and "twit" must have been each used about 100 times, and the word "mulful" far too often. The title came from nowhere--totally unrelated to the plot. I have to believe that the rest of the series is more interesting because if not, the author would have never had the opportunity to write even the second book. Quite the waste of time. The only redeeming factor is that I took the book out of the library and didn't pay for it.

I used to devour every installment in the Gregor Demarkian series and I long for the days when I could count on a visit with favorite characters while they were immersed in a well written mystery. This book goes thru the motions with rambling paragraphs that bore the reader before the message, if there is any, can be deciphered. While this book, thankfully, toned down the writers obvious political leanings, it unfortunately replaced them with characters who were not well fleshed out and a story line that has been overdone by the media. Nothing new here - even less in my opinion. Even more disappointing was practically no look into Demarkian's mind - he apparently has become psychic now - solving this one without even having to speak to anyone.

The only reason I forced myself to finish this book was the tease at the beginning that indicated that we might get some insight into what is happening with Gregor and Bennis. I was also hopeful for a little time with old friends from Cavenaugh Street but that was not to be.

If you are a long time reader who has been with this series from the beginning, I am thinking you will be just as sorry as I am that you got this one. You missed nothing and can skip to the next one without a worry. If you have not read any of this series and this is your first, I recommend going back to the beginning to see how good this series can be.

Much as I like the other Demarkian mysteries, with this one, author Jane Haddam is out of her depth. She appears to have done some Google searches for "Paris Hilton" and based a book around what she found. She's not very accurate about how the tabloid media and paparazzi work, much less the inner mysteries of the young, rich, and goofy. And let's think--what major film production takes place in Massachusetts in the winter? Highly unlikely.

A movie is being filmed on a small island near Cape Cod. The cast of characters consists of a couple of twits and the typical movie types. The island is the usual closed society consisting of year-round and summer residents, and a one-man police department with little experience. When a murder occurs, perhaps for the first time in anyone's memory, Gregor Demarkian is brought in as a consultant.

As the plot moves slowly along, there is little for the reader to grasp in this long, prolix story. It is full of wordy expositions, philosophy, and the antics of two female actors exhibiting their drinking habits and whatever else they can, and the plotting of a rich heiress who goads them on. Much is made of their showing off for a horde of photographers and the term "high school" is used throughout to describe a multitude of ills as well as the world in general, especially the celebrity culture extant.

This is the first book in the series which this reviewer has read (there were 21 previous entries) and based on this one, there does not seem to be any compelling reason to go back and read others. The characters in this novel are wooden, and Gregor seems to be a parody on Sherlock Holmes, arriving at the scene and immediately espousing his belief that he knows all, without any investigation. The book is written with a heavy hand and, to this reader at least, is ponderous. But there must be a lot of fans of Gregor Demarkian out there for 22 books to have been written about him, and presumably a 23rd is in the offing describing his forthcoming wedding endlessly previewed throughout this effort.

In Philadelphia Gregor Demarkian and Bennis Hannaford are planning to marry after seeing each other exclusively for quite some time. However, the wedding preparation demands are driving the sleuth crazy. He considers eloping, but his beloved Bennis is looking forward to the ceremony celebrated with their family and friends.

Thus when he has an opportunity to escape to New England to work on a high visibility homicide, he does not need a second invitation; Gregor informs Bennis that whatever she does re the nuptials in his absence is acceptable by him as he leaves town immediately for Margaret's Harbor. Famous celebrity Arrow Normand and her boyfriend of the moment Mark Anderman were filming on location when she was murdered during a nasty nor'easter. Normand was arrested for the murder.

CHEATING AT SOLITAIRE is a terrific whodunit as the hero struggles with a case involving pseudo and 15 minute celebrities; a sub-species he does not understand. Gregor's difficulties with what makes the shallow in-crowd tick turn this into a superior entry in a strong series, as he cannot find a reliable motive for the homicide while also working a couple of other investigations.

Harriet Klausner