Customer Reviews

The Closing

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4 star:		(1)
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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

They are everywhere. At parties. At bus stops and church. They are the aspiring writers. They might not have written one word but that's ok. They are going to write a novel. They have such interesting lives they know that they SHOULD write that novel. Fortunately 99% of them never do finish the thing.

This is one of those 1%. Everything about her biography says that she worked all of her life in Real Estate and had been planning this novel since her first sale.

Sadly, she shouldn't have bothered. This is a well written book but there's nothing in the thing to recommend it. The characters are boring. There is no tension to speak of. The main plot line is utterly boring. It basically boils down to a woman trying to buy land from a redneck mountain family in order to sell it to a golf course developer.

The main character is boring. The developer is boring. The sheriff is boring. See where I'm going with this? The book also falls into the Exposition Fairy trap that I despise. The narrative constantly stops to give background information that doesn't really matter.

Worse of all is the redneck family. They are supposed to be either scary or funny but they are neither. They are just hostile throughout. That might with the author's version of redneck nastiness (and is probably based on people she knows) but it doesn't make for compelling fictin.

All in all, a boring book about boring people doing boring things. Avoid.

In THE CLOSING, Canty O'Neil is a real estate agent in Wynton, Georgia, who has the chance of a lifetime to help Burke McGuire, a developer's agent, buy land to build a fabulous golf course that will attract wealth, jobs and people to the small town. It doesn't hurt that Burke is a handsome man either. Canty has generally been unlucky in love but she sees possibilities in Burke. The only problem is the land she needs to acquire for Burke is owned by the Ponders, an isolated, anti-social family given to shooting at trespassers. Queen, the older sister, is the only Ponder with a little sense and even she carries a rifle. Smith and Terrell, the insane twins, have a shotgun they regularly use to terrorize the townspeople. Pauly, a younger brother, is hopelessly retarded, as a result of inbreeding that has been going on in the Ponder family for generations. Tension is added when Burke and Canty need the sheriff, who is in love with Canty and jealous of Burke, to help back off the Ponder men as they attempt to negotiate the land price and terms with Queen. Will Canty be able to get around the Ponder twins and purchase the land? Can she capture Burke's heart?

There are laugh-out-loud moments as Canty deals with the Ponders, Burke and the sheriff. In this tight story, there are many moments of tense action as the Ponders terrify Burke and the town of Wynton while Queen attempts to come to the rescue. It is a look into the mountain culture that we hear whispers about but really isn't explored much in literature. Dagmar Marshall has done a good job of creating characters such as Canty, the sheriff and Burke, which anybody can identify with, and the Ponders are downright fascinating. There are some editing issues, such as missing or misplaced quotation marks and missing words that break the flow of the story in places; otherwise, it is a fun read.

Reviewed by Alice Holman

of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers

A quick-paced, entertaining mystery with a good balance of all the essentials -- humor, intrigue, and romance. I loved it!!