Customer Reviews

The Headmaster's Wife: A Gregor Demarkian Novel (Gregor Demarkian Mysteries)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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

(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.

I have enjoyed this series from the beginning, and feel that this novel takes the series into a new level - This is a more rounded and realized novel than previous offerings, although looking back over the last few, I can certainly see the direction Ms. Haddam was heading. Instead of just another murder mystery, the Demarkian series has progressed to a series of interesting novels in which a murder often takes place. The charactors are complex and very human - flaws and all.
I look forward to what happens next.

I couldn't wait to read this, and I wasn't disappointed. Ms. Haddam doesn't write anything that could be called typical. This is a mystery, a continuing love story, a situational plot (boarding school), and -- most of all, because this is her strength -- a great character study. In spite of all that, her books can't really be categorized, because she pulls everything into her plots. Mark, who finds himself frightened by what's happening to his body and his mind, turns not to his parent but to a trusted friend (Gregor DeMarkian) for help. Gregor, who has become disenchanted with solving murders, responds and finds that he needs to solve the murder to help Mark. The question is: who is going to help Gregor with Bennis?
If you're looking for a quick read or a warm fuzzy or something that reminds you of . . . now what was the name of that book I read? . . . don't read Jane Haddam. If you want something refreshing, challenging, and quirky, you've found the best there is!

Mark DeAvecca is a first year student at Windsor Prep but isn't feeling well; his hands shake, he hallucinates and has memory loss. Everyone on the campus assumes he is doing drugs because his roommate Michael Feyre is a drug dealer. One night he thinks he sees somebody lying down on the ground but when he goes to investigate nobody is there. Worried about his health, he calls his mother's friend, former FBI agent Gregor Demarkian.

Gregor notices right away that Mark is not himself but he doesn't believe he's taking drugs. He takes him to his hotel for a meal and some sleep and when Mark wakes up he returns to the school. When Gregor goes to find him, he sees Mark convulsing on the floor. He calls 911 and after some tests are made they learn he is suffering from caffeine and arsenic poisoning. They don't know who gave it to him or who wants him dead but Gregor thinks it is linked to the "suicide" death of his roommate. Gregor leads the local police in the direction he believes is the right one to catch the perpetrators.

Jane Haddam has written another fantastic Gregor Demarkian mystery only in this book his role is more of an observer than an active participant. Gregor is more concerned with his lover's revelation to his offhand comment about getting married and he uses the crimes as a way of escaping from Bennis's odd mood. The HEADMASTER'S WIFE is filled with eccentric and oddball characters, with secrets to hide. Gregor's job is to figure out which one is desperate enough to kill to keep the secret buried.

Harriet Klausner

The Headmaster's Wife is a sound mystery. I came nowhere near to guessing the who (someone at the prep school), nor the how (a student spends a year ill enough to fail coursework, leaving everyone convinced that he is a druggie), nor the why (can't tell you that!). I found the solution satisfying and, in that environment, entirely plausible.

One may complain that Haddam is goring an ox, and that, since the ox is the frequent target of rhetoric of the political right, Haddam has written a simple political screed. But an examination of Haddam's website will show that she is, if anywhere, to the left of center in American politics. Her targets here are the abandonment of intellectual rigor and moral discipline of any kind. Inward and outward dishonesty help to hide what's actually happening; personal moral corruption destroys lives; and the one person with any moral compass ends up discredited and almost dead before the mystery is unravelled.

G.K.Chesterton wrote that any mystery is a morality play. The successful detection reveals and corrects a moral defect or disease, and returns the world to its proper order. Like most of Haddam's stories, The Headmaster's Wife fits neatly into that definition.

Why then only four stars? The story falls short of Haddam's very best, which I identify as Precious Blood and A Stillness in Bethlehem. But that's a very high standard.

....the characters in "The Headmaster's Wife" populated a couple of schools where I taught--insular, self-centered and self-contained, and often rife with intrigue and petty jealousy. The only thing my schools were missing was the headmaster's' wife--nobody that glamorous and perverted ever existed in an environment I knew, more's the pity. But this is a very real novel, intent on creating a background which is integral to the action--festering greed and jealousy which can lead to murder. Jane Haddam has written yet another wonderful mystery--not for the impatient and faint of heart, certainly, but one that filled with real people and believable motives, and suspense which sustains the reader until the very last page.

I am a fan of this series and enjoyed this book as much as I have the previous ones I've read. Gregor is a true anti-hero and endearing in his own right

This is the first Demarkian book I've read & I am putting the series on my to-buy-more-of list. I DO have some quibbles, though. Other than Mark, we didn't get to meet ANY of the students. And the murderer's resorting to murder seemed extreme for something that could have been passed off as a mix-up of students.

With all the problems at the school, this is a novel that could have used the standard statement that "This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to ..."