The Drowning Tree: A Novel [Paperback]

Carol Goodman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 28, 2004

Artfully imagined, intricately detailed, eerily poignant: these are the outstanding features of Carol Goodman’s literary thrillers. She is part novelist, part craftsman—and The Drowning Tree is her newest masterpiece.

Juno McKay intended to avoid the nearby campus of her alma mater during her fifteenth reunion weekend, but she just can’t turn down the chance to see her longtime friend, Christine Webb, speak at the Penrose College library. Though Juno cringes at the inevitable talk of the pregnancy that kept her from graduating, and of her husband, Neil Buchwald, who ended up in a mental hospital only two years after their wedding, Juno endures the gossip for her friend’s sake. Christine’s lecture sends shockwaves through the rapt crowd when she reveals little-known details about the lives of two sisters, Eugenie and Clare—members of the powerful and influential family whose name the college bears. Christine’s revelation throws shadows of betrayal, lust, and insanity onto the family’s distinguished facade.

But after the lecture, Christine seems distant, uneasy, and sad. The next day, she disappears. Juno immediately suspects a connection to her friend’s shocking speech. Although painfully reminded of her own experience with Neil’s mental illness, Juno nevertheless peels away the layers of secrets and madness that surround the Penrose dynasty. She fears that Christine discovered something damning about them, perhaps even something worth killing for. And Juno is determined to find it—for herself, for her friend, and for her long-lost husband.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Goodman (The Lake of Dead Languages) delivers another captivating literary mystery of secrets old and new. After 15 years, Juno McKay returns to Penrose College, her alma mater, to hear her friend Christine give a lecture on a beautiful stained-glass window designed by the college's founder and featuring, it was assumed, his wife, Eugenie Penrose. But Christine's research has led her to other conclusions, and her lecture raises many carefully groomed eyebrows. Juno wonders if her always controversial friend has gone too far, and later, she's puzzled by Christine's odd questions and behavior, particularly regarding Juno's ex-husband, Neil, confined to a mental institution called Briarwood these last 14 years. Christine departs, leaving many unanswered questions, and days later, Juno discovers her body in the Hudson River near the college. With elegant precision, Goodman envelops readers in Juno's life, as well as in the lives of her daughter, Bea, and Eugenie and her institutionalized, lovelorn sister, Clare. As Juno finds herself plunged into the middle of a murder investigation, she begins to retrace the path of Christine's research, uncovering tangled connections among the prestigious college, the Briarwood mental facility and her own family history. This is an artful thriller, with rich, vivid descriptions of works of art, Hudson River Valley scenery and the knotty inner terrain of its characters' hearts.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Juno McKay is thrilled when her best friend Christine returns to their upstate New York college, Penrose, to give a lecture about the stained-glass window Juno will be restoring. Christine shocks her audience when she theorizes that Augustus Penrose, the college's founder, depicted his sister-in-law, Clare, not his wife, Eugenie, in the window. After the lecture, Juno finds Christine somewhat troubled and worries about her after she boards her train home. A week later, Juno and her 15-year-old daughter, Bea, kayak on the Hudson River to the Penrose estate, Astolat, where they discover a body: Christine. Heartbroken by her friend's death, which appears to be a suicide, Juno tries to find out what could have driven her over the edge. The search leads Juno in unexpected directions, one of which involves her handsome ex-husband, Neil, who has been a patient in the local asylum for 14 years, ever since he tried to drown himself, Juno, and Bea. Goodman is spot-on at developing a creepy, gothic atmosphere and delivering a compelling, tightly plotted mystery. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 356 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (December 28, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345462122
• ISBN-13: 978-0345462121
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #323,477 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Carol Goodman graduated from Vassar College, where she majored in Latin. After teaching Latin for several years, she studied for an MFA in Fiction. Her writing has been published in a number of literary magazines. She currently teaches writing and works as a writer-in-residence. She lives in Long Island, USA.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Literary mystery entertains and inspires, January 31, 2005

By 

Kay Day "Author, A Poetry Break and Killing Earl" (Jacksonville, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Drowning Tree: A Novel (Paperback)

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.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A thriller for the literate, July 20, 2005

By 

Noelle (Seattle) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Drowning Tree: A Novel (Paperback)

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.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Literary Thriller Gone Wrong, February 15, 2006

By 

N. Lavallee - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Drowning Tree: A Novel (Paperback)

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.