Customer Reviews

A Field Guide to Deception

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I fell in love with Jill Malone's writing style in "Red Audrey and the Roping." This book follows a similar type of story line with two main characters who can never seem to get their timing and lives in order, in a love can't conquer all style. However, I found this story line to be less compelling than her last. I felt like I knew where it was headed early on and I just wanted to get there. The mystery component that made "Red Audrey and the Roping" so captivating was missing.

"A Field Guide to Deception", Jill Malone's second novel, is even better than the first one. I found myself holding my breath through most of it. 30 pages before the end I accidentally saw the blurb on the cover, and almost didn't dare finish the novel.

In the end, I did, and it wasn't at all what I expected!

On the surface, nothing exceptional is happening though the characters are very likable and rather complex, masterfully created. It is the simmering excitement just under the surfare that made me hold my breath.

No spoilers here, but I would love to read a sequel to this one!

A Field Guide To Deception is about two women who are unsettled in their lives. Claire worked with her late aunt for years writing field guides to plants. She also depended on her aunt for support in dealing with life's situations, especially raising her small son Simon. Claire needs to produce another guide, but she's drifting without a sense of direction. Liv is a handywoman who works odd jobs and has been hired by Claire to do some work on her property. She's used to being on her own, picking up one night stands at bars and she's not sure she ever wants to settle down, but she's been charmed by Simon and that brings her into a very uneasy relationship with Claire. They begin to view each other in new ways and find much that is attractive. They also make numerous mistakes, but seem to be trying to make the situation work. Then an incident disrupts everything and whether or not they can ever put the pieces back together is very questionable.

This story doesn't totally conform to the usual template of a romance, especially since the ending of the book is uncertain as to what is happening. There are two layers of plot here, one that is a fairly simple story and then an undercurrent that is hinted at, but elusive. The characters are complex and have a tendency to shift just when the reader is getting a sense of who they are. In some ways they're also aggravating. Many of their problems could be solved by simply talking to each other, but instead they jump to conclusions and avoid conversation. Once or twice might seem realistic, but when it keeps happening, the reader might wonder what's wrong with the two women. The pace of the book is uneven which makes becoming enmeshed in the story difficult.

Bywater Books is making an effort to put out books that it feels go beyond the standard patterns and provide more sophisticated reading. These usually aren't stories that can be read and digested in a couple of hours, but require more concentration. The problem is that sometimes, in trying to create more complex books, stories can also become convoluted. A Field Guide To Deception will require more effort than a casual bit of afternoon reading for the full meaning of the story to be fully grasped.

This book follows two characters and their pathway to love. Though, it is not your typical, formulaic romance. As you will see if you chose to buy or borrow this book. The author is exceptional at creating flawed, angst ridden characters. The plot is well-structured. The main storyline is not compelling at all, in my opinion. I kept waiting and waiting and waiting for something to happen . The story had progressed a certain way and the characters had developed . . . Then we see in the "climatic" ending that they [characters and plot] had essentially gone nowhere on this pathway.

Richard LaBonte referred to Jill Malone's first novel, Red Audrey and the Roping, as a "nonlinear novel that jitterbugs through time and place."

Malone's second novel is a smoother dance, more of a raft ride down the rapids, where your position changes with every whorl of current. The characters and the plot leave you facing one way, then whip you around like white water roiling around outcroppings, to finish the ride looking behind you in wonder. How did I come to be in this position? You may start out believing the story is going one way, but you will be spun and spit out many a time in this new novel, whipsawed between ideas and feelings and concepts.

Each character in this book glows, and shifts and pulls us toward them, and at times repels us. We are drawn in and thrown out. Just when you think you are comfortable, settling in, sure of your assessment of Claire, or Liv, or even Claire's son, just when you think you know them, you don't.

Nothing is as it seems to be at first. Everything changes, or our perception of things, the people, their relationships, shift, with each snappy, well-paced scene. It is complex, and fast, and deeper than you may assume when you begin reading. Like the depth of a fast-moving river, which changes when boulders rise up to make the water swirl and eddy, rush into white, and recede to allow the water to slow down after a lazy curve to almost silent running, this book speeds, then slows, catches us, then tosses the reader back, stirs emotions, causes whiplash as scenes are revisited, layers added and stripped away.

You really do need a field guide for this one. Malone is a wonderful writer, and sights, smells, sounds, tastes, all the senses come into play as she takes us on a journey, and with great, deft skill leads us through the characters'misconceptions and missteps like a camp counselor leaping from stone to stone across a stream.

A Field Guide to Deception is a rare treat. When a debut novel like Red Audrey shows so much skill and promise, it is a pleasure to find a second novel as delightful and engaging as this one.

Jill Malone's first novel, Red Audrey and the Roping, won the Bywater Prize for Fiction. Her second, A Field Guide to Deception, won the 2010 Lambda award. I can't wait to read her next novel, and see what greater honors it may garner.