Customer Reviews

The Drowning Tree

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Some mystery writers just like to throw out the characters and weave them into a plot without frills. But Carol Goodman takes the mystery up a level or two and carves an entertaining but thought-provoking book in the process.

Ms. Goodman likes mythology and classic literature and art. She moves the plot along by using parallels from mythological tales such as Baucis and Philemon, two ancient lovers turned into a tree by Zeus who granted the couple's wish that they may die together and be guardians of Zeus's temple. This sounds heavy-handed, but it isn't. Such myths work well within the storyline.

The author builds her primary mystery around a painting that served as the model for an artsy stained-glass window at Penrose College. The narrator Juno McKay attended Penrose, but didn't graduate because she got pregnant and married her boyfriend Neil. Juno's story opens with a brief dream sequence, then segues into reality as she rushes to hear her best friend Christine give a lecture about the artist and other personalities associated with the painting/window.

There's a lot of action in the book, considering it's what I'd call a literary mystery. Juno's husband Neil is mentally ill, and has been in a long-term care facility since he tried to drown Juno and their daughter Beatrice years ago. Juno has several romantic interests, and the reader wonders who will triumph in the end, although one of the men's names is a dead giveaway.

Penrose college is one of those tony schools up North with hefty tuition and lofty expectations as well as a delicious scandal that unfolds. Several mysteries run concurrently, but are neatly wrapped up in the end.

Ms. Goodman manages to take on a bit of literary and artistic theory without boring the reader. One tool she uses to do this is an antique diary written by the alleged subject of the painting, Eugenie Penrose, who writes, "Think of how a mood is changed by our surroundings-how more harmonious is the life lived among beautiful things."

This mystery has the classic red herring, a well-constructed story-line, and a budding romance in addition to modern and historical love triangles. A primary theme in the book is water as both a giver and taker of life. The book is written by a thinker, by an author who obviously loves words, and is well-read in the classics important to Western civilization.

I'd recommend this book to any reader, because it will work for readers on different levels. Those who like to think about philosophy and art will appreciate it, as will those who simply want to be entertained. It's a breath of fresh air in the popular mystery field, and it's a great read to boot.

I am so glad to have discovered this author! She's created a multi-faceted, intriguing story which, although not entirely plausible, is a witty and smart read, perfect for the summer. The plot weaves together art history, unrequited love and relationships, mythology, a generations-old mystery, and a modern-day murder, using as a backdrop the Hudson Valley and incorporating everything from Dante and stained glass technique to kayaking.

These seemingly disparate elements come together seamlessly, and I was repeatedly struck while reading this book how knowledgeable the author is. Her grasp of languages, history, and psychology are impressive, and I have to admit, I felt a bit smarter after reading this book.

Which is not to say that it is perfect. There are small holes in the storyline, but they're not obvious, and they don't take away from the intriguing and engaging tone of the characters and the situations in which they find themselves. The ending was a bit too contrived, however the author could have taken the plot twists in several different directions, and she chose an interesting resolution to the problems the protagonist faces.

Ultimately I gave this book 5 stars because I was so pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. If you like thrillers, particularly those written by someone who's at least as smart as you are (if not more), you can hardly do better.

I have become a fan of Carol Goodman's after reading "The Lake of Dead Languages" and "The Seduction of Water." Her work has always defied genre classification: part thriller, part mystery, part romance, all done in lush, lovely prose.

I expected the same from her in this one, and at first, she delivered. The plot is pure Carol Goodman, with a thirtysomething heroine, unfulfilled in her romantic and artistic lives, confronting a trauma from her past while trying to unspool a mystery. Her writing is exquisite, all done in dreamlike, present tense narrative, and the backdrop of the Pre-Raphaelite and Arts & Crafts Movements is done as well as Latin and folklore were done in her previous two novels.

However, Goodman's tale falls apart hopelessly in the last chapter or two. The strong appeal of her stories for me has always been the central mystery, at the heart of which has always been a deep, dark secret, the best sort of Gothic twist, and at first, Goodman seems to be taking us down that path in her best tradition: a scandal from the past, madness, and love gone wrong. However, she suddenly makes a turn toward the end leading us to an utterly pedestrian demouement that seems more fitting to the workman-like prose of Lisa Gardner than to Goodman. It's incogruous, her lovely writing with this hackneyed, silly resolution, and the red herrings she planted along the way are left unresolved or hastily and incompletely explained.

I read Carol Goodman because she usually rises above this. Not this time. Disappointing.

Carol Goodman is a talented writer of what is commonly known as literary thrillers, a genre that precariously straddles serious literature and throwaway thrillers. Her highly literate style of writing, interest in Greek mythology and art, and her preferred choice of setting for her stories - often girls' schools and institutes of learning - lend a certain aura of female respectability to her mysteries. Those who have read and enjoyed "The Lake Of Dead Languages" will find "The Drowning Tree" equally entertaining if not as satisfying.

Goodman takes her time telling her story of love, friendship, betrayal, heritage and madness. The plot enfolds amidst much evocative delving into the past where deadly secrets are buried in recently discovered sketches, letters, deliberately misassembled stained glass paintings, submerged treasures in out-of-bounds estate grounds, etc. All this paves the way for a denouement that isn't as much predictable as artificial, as if Goodman is trying her damnest to avoid the obvious once readers have cottoned onto the truth very early on about what really happened more than a hundred years ago. For this reason, I found the ending somewhat anti-climactic, like a last minute diversion into some minor lane. It is ultimately the consistently high quality of writing that rescues the "The Drowning Tree" from being an averagely plotted thriller. Goodman should find new plot direction if she is to avoid repetition and being stuck in a rut.

Four stars for the plot but five stars overall.

Having met Ms. Goodman some years ago when she published her first novel (I worked with her brother), I am always hoping she will really break out with a huge success. Though this novel continues her pattern of subtly eerie thrillers, I don't know if this novel stands out enough to do it for her in this world of Dan Brown-type success. It's unfortunate because she is a strong writer.

In this novel, Ms. Goodman's protagonist is Juno McKay, a college drop-out due to pregnancy who has spent the past 15 years bringing up her daughter alone after her husband goes mad, tries to kill them and ends up in an insane asylum. Following in her father's footsteps, she has become a restorer of stained glass. While restoring a window for her should-have-been alma mater, her best friend dies and she becomes swept up in the investigation of the death.

There are plenty of twist and turns in the story though the real joy of her stories are not surprises (they aren't really that surprising) but the prose. I may not really be able to believe that it takes Juno as long as it does to read the diary pages she finds (I mean, it's 10 minutes reading max and there's a mystery here, for crying out loud) and she's pretty dense about some things (like Neil, for instance) but, like the Hudson that flows through the center of this story (OK, I also enjoy
the fact that for the second time now, she has placed key action in the north tip of Manhattan--places I know because I live here), it flows easily towards its wild conclusion. It's a good read.

If Ms. Goodman is showing an overall weakness, it is borrowing from herself. She stays well within her safety net here: another northeast school campus intrigue with a well-educated but struggling woman protagonist. However, it's difficult to be critical since many authors tend to stay within a certain milleau and they're always told to "write what you know." Still, it might be nice for her to break some new ground in her next novel. Though I have to admit, I am interested in what obsesses her about water: The Lake of Dead Languages, The Seduction of Water and, now, The Drowning Tree. (Plus a lot of drowned characters in three novels.) Maybe we'll get some more clues in the next one.

I just finished reading The Drowning Tree. While I enjoyed the several unexpected twists in the story, what kept me entwined in its pages was Goodman's gorgeous writing style. The worlds Ms. Goodman create are complex, heady places that I can sink into comfortably. Often, I return to a sentence to savor its flavor once more. In an era of jerky TV advertisements that seem both to reflect and to further erode our attention spans, I find Goodman's books expect far more of her readers. Her stories recapture an innocent age of literature, one where readers are not condenscended to, but where we have to reach out a bit and to extend ourselves. I am looking forward with great anticipation to Goodman's next effort.

With prose as fluid as the watery scenes that populate the novel, Carol Goodman has written a mystery that brims with color both literally and figuratively.
Juno McKay is a stained glass restorer who goes to hear her best friend give a lecture at their alma mater: A lecture that manages to be controversial since it sheds some unflattering light on the two sisters who the college is named after. However, the story really begins when her friend never makes it back to her New York apartment, and what transpires brings Juno's own haunted past back to life; a past that includes a mentally ill husband who tried to murder she and her daughter fifteen years earlier. The book's beautiful prose adds layers to the Gothic and moody tone, and although I felt the resolution was a bit of a letdown it still was an engaging read.

I have a very simple review. This is by far the best, most haunting book I have ever read. A week after I put it down, I was still dreaming about it, thinking about it, wondering and worrying about it. It stuck with me for a good long while. I recommend it to everyone.

This was a wonderfully crafted, wonderfully written novel. Every character real and well-drawn and an original story line. So great to have a mystery that doesn't require CSI-type gore to advance the pages. What beautiful parallels to mythology in this story. This is my second favorite novel of all time - The Shadow of the Wind being my first. I read a lot and this book is a pure jewel for being original and well-written.

"The Drowning Tree" has much to recommend it. But why oh why does Carol Goodman have to write in the present tense? It's irritating, and I really had to push myself through the book.