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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unexpectedly suspenseful, May 4, 1998
This review is from: Duplicate Keys (Paperback)
I came across this book on Amazon.com when I was browsing through the list of Jane Smiley titles. A *mystery* by Jane Smiley? I'm a big mystery buff, so I had to read it. And you know what? I really enjoyed it, both from a suspense standpoint and a literary standpoint. I guessed the identity of the murderer even before the protagonist, but there was still a great deal of suspense as to how the situation would play out which kept me reading all day until the final page. While most standard murder mysteries switch between several viewpoints, Smiley shows the whole story through the eyes of Alice Ellis, so that the reader is as much in the dark as she is; I think this helped tremendously with the suspense. The novel also examines how the murder affected the friends of the victims, both their self-perception and their relationships with each other. Most characters were well-drawn and fleshed-out and the changing dynamic of their relationships made the book as compelling a novel as it was a mystery.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not Smiley's usual but still an excellent murder mystery, November 19, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Duplicate Keys (Paperback)
Jane Smiley writes about families and relationships, not murder mysteries, so it's a feather in her cap for versatility that she acquits herself more than decently on this atypical novel of hers. The murders have already taken place before we begin, so the rest of the novel has us backtracking through a minefield of relationships that once bound the friends together. Quite clearly, the network has collapsed beneath the growing rot that nobody seemed to care to notice until the inevitable happened. The friendship, if you could call it that, was undermined by a combination of sexual betrayal, professional jealousies and other dependencies and left to find its own bloody equilibrium. The narrator Alice Ellis' voice isn't an unequivocal one. It's hard to nail her personality down or even decide whether she's likeable or not. She's bitter, insecure, vulnerable, defiant and bitchy all at the same time. But then again, we are reminded that Smiley is always more interested in the people than the plot and so it shouldn't be too surprising that we get an edgy character for a heroine and some excellent characterisation to boot. Some readers have complained about the identity of the murderer being predictable. I don't. If there's an awkward and unsatisfactory element in the story, it's in the romantic subplot. Henry may be the secret lover who lives across the street but he doesn't belong. He should have been saved for Smiley's next book about Alice. Smiley may have set out to write a different novel but she couldn't help but leave large traces of her familiar genre behind. Still, "Duplicate Keys" is a hugely enjoyable novel. Recommended.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Some flaws, but not horrible, February 13, 2001
This review is from: Duplicate Keys (Paperback)
In the context of those books of hers that i have read, this is the worst. However, in the context of mystery novels, this is pretty decent. The book is an easy read, ideal for a plane ride or a leisurely weekend. Alice, as a main character, is pretty pathetic. The short snippets of conversation between her and her ex husband made me cringe. I had far more respect for the killer, a sturdier person all in all. I agree with some readers in that it is fairly easy to figure out who did it. Anyhow, a Pulizter Prize winning author doesn't have to write Pulizter Prize material all the time!
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