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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Haddam's Best Yet, May 3, 2005
This review is from: The Headmaster's Wife: A Gregor Demarkian Novel (Gregor Demarkian Mysteries) (Hardcover)
Jane Haddam's Demarkian series took a darker, more complex turn with Somebody Else's Music, and that continues in her latest, The Headmaster's Wife. This time, Gregor shares center stage with Mark DeAvecca, the smart, interesting kid first glimpsed in Somebody Else's Music. Mark is now a new student at Windsor Academy, a Massachusetts prep school where things are not what they seem--on many levels. Plagued by a set of mysterious physical symptoms, Mark feels himself losing his grasp on reality, while everyone around him attributes his odd behavior to drugs and is ready to write him off as not "suitable" to Windsor. Meanwhile, the sands seem to be shifting under Gregor's feet, as his relationship with Bennis changes in ways he struggles to understand, and the prospect of investigating murders fails to inspire him with any sense of purpose. When Mark finds his roommate hanging dead from a pipe in their dorm room, he calls on Gregor to help. Hired as a consultant by the local police department, Gregor's investigation turns up the hypocrisy and sometimes-deadly complexities lurking behind the picture postcard facade of Windsor. As always, there's a clever puzzle at the heart of the plot, but the real prize here is Haddam's continuing exploration of--and here I'm going to risk sounding like one of the teachers at Windsor<G>--identity, class, and the fate of intellectualism in American society. And of course the character of Mark, who is definitely an addition to the series. Haddam is to be congratulated for continuing to develop Gregor and her other continuing characters, rather than allowing them to descend into schtick--something that has killed many a fine series. This is her best book yet.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Author Who Just Gets Better and Better, February 5, 2006
This review is from: The Headmaster's Wife: A Gregor Demarkian Novel (Gregor Demarkian Mysteries) (Hardcover)
The Headmaster's Wife
A Gregor Demarkian Novel (Gregor Demarkian)
by Jane Haddam
Windsor Academy. a New England college prep school is the setting for The Headmaster's Wife. Steeped in traditions, distinguished alumni and plenty of money, Windsor seems almost utopian on the surface. Yet, all is not as it may seem! One student appears to be losing his mind or else has some kind of fatal disease; another is already dead, and the place is on the verge of everything but an academic course of intrigue.
In her tale, Jane Haddam introduces us to a whole new cast of characters at Windsor Academy engaged in some pretty strange relational interactions. As prep student Mark DeAvecca starts to lose his footing at Windsor Academy, he calls a friend of his family to ask for help. The man he calls is no ordinary family friend, but Gregor Demarkian, -- a retired FBI agent who has the reputation for almost magical powers in crime solving. In his post-retirement years, Demarkian has developed a media reputation as a volunteer crime solver nicknamed: the "Armenian American Hercule Poirot"
Gregor agrees to come to Windsor to speak to Mark because he was impressed with the young man the few times he had previously met him. There's a secondary motivation for Gregor to take the trip as he is running out of patience with the people on Cavanaugh Street in Philadelphia, as they all tell him he's depressed and needs to go back to taking cases. His girlfriend, Bennis Hannaford, has stopped talking to him and Gregor is beside himself and just doesn't know which way to turn. Fortunately, Mark's call seemed to give him an excuse to make a getaway trip from the folks at home and at the same time still allowing him to avoid taking on a "case" as Mark just seemed to need a listening ear.
Once Gregor arrives in New England, he quickly determines that Mark is terribly sick and that beneath the surface of Windsor Academy lay many secrets and less than academic endeavors. The intrigue mounts from there. Gregor is quickly drawn into a major case and he quickly discovers he hasn't lost his touch.
I truly enjoyed this book. The characters are well developed and distinctive. Each is a true `character' with respect to a collection of somewhat eccentrics. From the Headmaster's Wife onward, Haddam has given us some quirky individuals who have history with one another and some of its not particularly pleasant. The story moves along well and I lost a few nights of decent sleep staying up reading to see what came up next (for me, the true test of whether I enjoy a book).
With 19 previous books in this series, and a few others under her own name and yet another pseudonym, this is Jane Haddam's best yet. Her writing has become better and more interesting. The intrigue and sophistication of the crimes have also grown more complex and fascinating. But as Gregor himself says, evil usually comes down to the simpler things -- secrets, money or sex. And, Windsor Academy has them all!
The Headmaster's Wife is the 20th in the Gregor Demarkian novels that Haddam has written. Having been a loyal follower all through the years, I have to say that some weren't the greatest. However, I really enjoy reading mystery and suspense with a continuing character. If you enjoy mystery and suspense, without too much gore, Jane Haddam's novels are highly recommended. She is a wonderful author to try because there is so much available in used paperbacks of her earlier books in the series that you don't have to wait until her next one to be published if you like them. I myself am also on the lookout for unfamiliar authors who already have a number of books that I haven't read. The Headmaster's Wife is highly recommended as well as all of Jane Haddam's previous Gregor Demarkian books.
Daniel J. Maloney,
Saint Paul, Minnesota USA
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing resolution, July 12, 2007
(contains spoilers)
The pacing of this tale and some of its characters, chiefly the intriguing headmaster's wife and titillating details about her sex life, keep you reading till the end. But the ending leaves your flat and unsatisfied, as do most of the characters. People who skim money may be despicable, but they are rarely murderers, especially not poisoners. Likewise, psychopaths don't often (ever?) put themselves at the physical mercy of those whom they're blackmailing. And those being blackmailed, however much they may hate it, aren't likely to be the type to kick the chair out from under someone with a noose around his neck, never mind having the strength to do it. Two women who live together, travel together, have a bank account together, spend their lives involved in making illegal money together, and have no other close relationships may not be lesbians, but then again, in all fairness, they might as well be. The faculty at this boarding school widely regards first-year student Mark DeAvecca as a liar, unreliable, stupid, and unlikeable in spite of overwhelming evidence that he is seriously ill physically if not mentally. They heap scorn on him to an extent hard to believe, given the physical description of him and his age.
In addition to these many inconsistencies, the author pulls some bothersome tricks on the reader. She starts the book by giving each suspect a chapter in which we are ostensibly privy to the character's inner life. More than halfway through the novel, she then starts throwing red herrings into the novel thick and fast, each of which casts a suspect in a radically (not to unbelievably) bizarre light, wholly inconsistent with the portrait of the character given earlier.
And, none of the faculty members' characters are presented in any depth. A few unfleshed-out details are given about a poor childhood here, an arrest for murder and anarchy there, maybe a penchant for teenage boys there, but none of the teachers feel like fully fledged human beings. They just seem unpleasant for no real reason.
Lastly, the detective, Gregor Demarkian, appears to have no real character beyond saying he's got the answers and that his longtime girlfriend's behavior is a mystery to him (to him and everyone else--this subplot was a yawner straight out of some kid's Saturday morning cartoon).
There are enough allusions to kinky or illegal sex, drug use, and poison to make you suspend disbelief long enough to reach the end of this novel. Also, the pacing never really flagged, and all the elements of what should have been a satisfying read were there. But somehow, it fell flat--not enough attention to character and just too many events and characters that strained credibility to the snapping point.
Maybe some of this author's other novels were better.
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