Customer Reviews

The Death of an Amiable Child: An Anita Servi Novel (Anita Servi Mysteries)

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

 

 

Social worker Anita Servi works for Senior Services. Her job description includes keeping the elderly out of nursing homes by providing them with home healthcare, medical transportation, cleaning, and shopping. Anita lives with her husband Bennie and their foster child Clea in a Manhattan Upper West Side co-op filled with many senior citizens she tries to assist even if it is outside the job.

One morning Clea and Anita discover the dead body of Lillian Raines, who had occasionally taken shelter inside the building. Later that week, two of her clients also die and two others were seriously injured in a house accident. The social worker cannot believe all this coincidence, but the police shrug it off as the elderly being elderly. Unsatisfied with the official response, Julia begins her own investigation, which may lead to her being the next victim.

Irene Marcuse's debut novel works because the characters seem so real even as they turn the city into a cement jungle. The cast enables the story line to capture the essence of predators and their victims, lonely senior citizens. The heroine is a strong caring person who serves as a role model for community service. The subplot centering on a manicurist preying on senior citizens not only propels the main story line forward, but adds complexity to a deep tale. THE DEATH OF AN AMIABLE CHILD is a haunting work that leaves a lasting impression on its audience.

Harriet Klausner

This book is about relationships and the ingenuity of a curious social worker to put pieces of a puzzle together. Social Worker Anita Servi doesn't take no for an answer -- she questions authority and goes to the heart of what matters. Author Irene Marcuse is to be congratulated for capturing the West Side of Manhattan -- and not just the varied geography which she does so very well. She shares with us the lives of her characters: the quirkiness of Elizabeth and Catherine, the toughness of the female building Super, the gentleness of the policeman and others who form the wonderful tapestry of personalities and styles. I read this book when I was called to Jury Duty and the clues in the Amiable Child case had me rooting for Anita all the way. Good work by this new author; I look forward to another mystery of relationships to untangle.

I bought this book based on the glowing trade reviews, and, initially, I was very taken with it. There's a fine cast of geriatrics who are well-drawn and believable. The social worker heroine starts out well enough and then turns into one of those irritating women who is forever getting herself into terrible trouble. A whole bunch of people die; so many that it literally became a case of overkill. It's bothersome that the heroine and her husband have adopted a child of color and yet they encounter no problems, either with the child or with the people they meet. What we're given is a child with cornrows and no other discernibly African-American qualities.

I give the author points for a decent first try, and hope that the next book in this series has fewer bodies and a smartened-up heroine.

I really enjoyed how the author wove her characters and the diversity of the Upper West Side into the mystery. The neighborhood gave the story a lot of color and feeling, especially since the buildings were old and the main character (as well as many others in the story) was elderly. I regret her derogative characterization of one man as an "albino praying mantis," however, as people with albinism are also part of the fabric of the city.

This is not a great book but it's pretty good for a first timer. It gets boring in places and there are way too many transition scenes. I found myself having to skip pointless sections.

Antia's character sometimes annoys. She's too smug and a little too self righteous. At the climax she does something that makes no sense at all--something that no reasonable New York woman would even think of and that almost ruined the book for me.

Also, it occasionally gets preachy and that's not what I pick up a mystery for. The plot is clever, the side characters are very well done especially Clea, Miss Elizabeth and Miss Catherine. Marcuse's black characters come off as humans, not stereotypes and I appreciated that. She also does a fine job of caputring the West side of NYC. Will I buy another Anita Servi book? Maybe but I'll check the reviews first.

As my 1998 collection of poems was entitled "Grave of an Amiable Child," this title naturally caught my eye. It's a well-meaning, idealistic attempt to make reading about (and remedying)deplorable urban conditions more immediate in the dramatic context of a mystery. Unfortunately, it's very over-loaded on good intentions (interfaith marriage, interracial adoption, etc.), and it doesn't sound as if the author knew the neighborhood well.

It's a good summer beach book, though.