Customer Reviews

Living Witness: A Gregor Demarkian Novel (Gregor Demarkian Mysteries)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I've always been a Gregor Demarkian fan but lately it seems to me Ms Haddam is less interesteed in telling a story and character development than she is in her current 'controversy of the month'. This time it's the evolutionists versus the creationists and while the mystery has little to do with either, the majority of the book and the characters therein are devoted to one side or the other. But regardless of the side, these characters are irrational to the highest degree. They are paranoid characatures of advocates either of intelligent design or secular humanism. t
Other than Gregor, it appears that there is not even one sane person who lives in Snow Hill. No wonder Gregor is perpetually bemused by what is going on. Dialogue, or soliquies, which often ramble on for pages are nothing but extended 'rants' against the 'other side'. Advocates of creationism repeat ad nauseam the anti sec - humanist mantra 'If there is no God, then there can be no morals'. while the Darwinists chant that all religion is evil and religious folks are bastions of willful ignorance. Haddam also manages the somehow hold small towns accountable for this kind of narrow minded intellectual insanity.

Everything is extreme in this novel. People speak in shouts, dialogue becomes diatribe. it's just way over the top. Haddams's novels didn't used to be this way, but lately she seems to have let the topic run away with the story and the topic run away with itself.

We don't have Tibor in this book (really the only link Haddam has left with reason and empathy) and the book reads like one long shout about how stupid, narrow minded, angry, or confused people living in a small town are. Sorry, Jane, but this just ain't true and the horses need to be reined in.

I always await Jane Haddam's books eagerly, because they contain an interesting puzzle, delightful characters, and a theme that moves the book a bit deeper than run-of-the mill mysteries. Living Witness is a take on the evolution vs. creationism controversy, reminiscent of the Dover Area School Board court case of recent memory. Jane's takes on such issues are always fascinating, and, as usual, her research is exemplary; readers can access her sources and make up their own minds on the issue. The puzzle is set in motion by a murderous attack on an older woman who is a member of the school board in a small Pennsylvania town; the whodunnit and why are well disguised throughout the book (the clues are fair). Gregor Demarkian, Bennis Hannaford, Father Tibor and the usual characters of this long-running series are present and their stories are moving along. The small town characters are not sentimentalized, not portrayed as thoughtless hicks, but given personalities and opinions on many different aspects of the main issue.

Nevertheless, Jane Haddam has written better books. The issue overpowers the story to an extent that is rare in her work, and sometimes the dialogue comes across as little didactic speeches. Fans of her work (and I am one) will find much to enjoy, but if I were asked by someone who hadn't read her before, I would not recommend starting with this book; I'd recommend Somebody Else's Music or Cheating at Solitaire as a better introduction.

First the good part: this is a reasonably strong Gregor Demarkian mystery.

Next the question: Since Gregor and Bennis are finally married, will the series continue? Their marriage received less attention than I would have liked, although there was some ingenuity and it was linked into Gregor's reason for taking this case.

Now the problem: Jane Haddam's mysteries include characters of whom she clearly disapproves. This is usually pretty good; she illustrates various popular character faults and disorders in a way that is usually enlightening. Here she tries and fails. Perhaps she just disapproves too much. Perhaps she failed to separate one flaw (incivility) from another (unreason) and so did not nail the characters cleanly. It would be a shame if this were the last of the Demarkian stories because the characters are not so much uninspired as uncrafted. Perhaps she was rushed; this seems to come on the heels of the last book. Perhaps she was so disgusted that she didn't want to put any more of herself into it (she admits her bias in the acknowledgements). Or perhaps she only half understands what she's attempting to portray. She is closer at heart to Bennis than to the coal miners and moonshiners.

I still recommend the book, but it is not Haddam's top tier. And she has not, to my mind, bested Precious Blood or A Stillness in Bethlehem. Still, it is far above Murder Superior (which might be better forgotten) and it is worth an evening.

Title Living Witness: A Gregor Demarkian Novel (Gregor Demarkian Novels)
Author Jane Haddam
Rating ****
Tags mystery, series, fbi, gregor demarkian, evolution


This is the twenty-fourth in the Gregor Demarkian series by Jane Haddam, and the first in the series that I've read. I picked it because I saw a summary that made it clear it is set against a backdrop of a battle over evolution in schools similar to the one that actually took place in Dover, Pennsylvania, which is a big interest of mine.

Demarkian is a second-generation Armenian, who lives in an Armenian neighborhood in Philadelphia. He is a retired FBI agent who now consults with police. He is called into the small town of Snow Hill, Pennsylvania where a 91 year-old resident, Annie-Vic Hadley, is in a coma after being viciously beaten. She is on the school board, and one of the plaintiffs in a case against the rest of the school board, who voted to include stickers in the public school biology textbooks that say that some people don't accept evolution and for more information see a particular book that advocates intelligent design.

As Gregor investigates, another plaintiff is found murdered.

Demarkian finds a town divided. It is not simply fundamentalist Christians against those who support teaching evolution. Snow Hill is on the edge of Appalachia, and the hill people, a slightly less pejorative term for hillbillies, are despised by the townspeople. The townspeople, in turn, are mostly despised by the people in the "development", people who are not native to Snow Hill and for the most part want the town to change to be less provincial and to provide the kind of education tht will get their children into Ivy league schools.

Haddam creates fascinating characters and shows some of their thoughts, and in this way illustrates the differing sides in the turmoil. Some fulfill the stereotypes, such as a couple of the school board members who are willfully ignorant and proud of it; or, conversely, the school principal who is a native of the town but knows evolution is a fact and does not want to dilute teaching that fact. Others are less expected, such as the Holiness preacher who is a hillbilly who loves books, and not just those that come from Christian publishing houses. He has started a church school and is determined that the children of the hill people get a good education in an environment where they are not so despised. Then there is the police chief, a former Marine who calls in Demarkian because he, himself, is a suspect, and who has an act of superhuman bravery in his past.

I've always believed that fiction can tell psychological truths in a way that non-fiction cannot, and Haddam does a good job of proving it. By giving voice to the people of the town, she humanizes the viewpoints of people whose beliefs span a broad range. It isn't always comfortable - for example, she shows that people with my viewpoint can be as fanatical and irrational as those with the opposite view. But it IS enlightening. Haddam, in the after note, explains her own views on the controversy. She believes that evolution is a fact, just as gravity is a fact, even though the mechanisms by which both of these work are not yet completely understood. She is, however, concerned that there is an increasing view that everything that is not science is superstition, and that this view throws out not only what may be good in religion, but in the arts as well.

Did I like the book? Well, I've ordered the first in the series from my local library. You be the judge.

I am a fan of Gregor Demarkian. I found myself disappointed in this book. I felt a little like Miss Marbledale as I lamented the deterioration of language. The annoying affectation, "well", inserted into sentences throughout the book and the phrases, "Here's the thing", "That's the thing", were particularly galling to me. Do people actually talk like that - other than those who are reciting their lines on TV? I heard an author explain to his audience that his editors are 5 years out of college.That could explain this language. Does it also explain a character "pouring" over a document or a character, Tom Vardan, showing up for the first time on page 344? (By page 351, I think he had turned into Tom Fordman.)

A $4500.00 maid of honor dress?

I thought the construction of the mystery was fine, the other aspects of the book leave something to be desired.

I've been reading the Demarkian books since they started and this book, "Living Witness", is a collection of rants, not a mystery. Haddam has it in for evangelical Christians in small, rural Eastern towns and this book is just spleen-venting on the subject.

I know that the usual mystery could be written in a paragraph or two and all the rest is just steganography to stretch it out and make it entertaining, but I really dislike Haddam's prejudice against such people (I'm not one of them, incidentally) and don't find it at all enjoyable to read. Haddam's Johnny-one-note characters aren't engaging, no matter which side they're on. If I want to read irrational ranting on any of the sides of the evolution/creationist/elitism/classism issues, I can find it on the Internet for free, rather than being suckered into paying for it in the guise of a mystery.

This was the fist (and only) book of Jane Haddam's that I've read. I generally don't jump into the middle of a series, but the subject matter (teaching of evolution vs. creationism) interested me so I read it. Unfortunately I didn't get much from the book. The characters seem to trot out the same tired arguments we hear on the subjects, without adding anything new to the equation. The mystery itself was interesting, but felt like it was wrapped up almost as an afterthought. I don't expect to continue reading this series of books.

I like Jane Haddam's Gregor Demarkian series, although it's slightly different than what I typically read in the mystery/thriller genre. I tend more towards cop books & forensic books with the occasional political or legal thriller thrown in for good measure. Haddam's books are more closely related to Miss Marple - no, they're not British nor are they typically set in a small town, but in their own way they nicely fit the small village murder model. At least in my mind.

Her books frequently deal with some issue, but they are more wonderful in the way they deal with her main character, Gregor Demarkian, the Armenian former FBI guy & his foibles. Mr. Demarkian lives in a wonderfully real & whacky Armenian neighborhood in Philadelphia peopled by completely original & memorable characters who I absolutely fell in love with upon first reading.

& that, I think, is the problem with this particular book - it's taken Mr. Demarkian to small-town Pennsylvania & that's just not as compelling for me. I've read a number of reviews that complain about the two-dimensionality of the religious characters in this book about a fight over teaching Intelligent Design in the schools, but I'm going to have to disagree with them. Yes, many of the pro-Intelligent Design characters are pretty two-dimensional, but no more so than the pro-evolution characters. & that, I think, is another problem with this book. At some point most of these characters became straw figures in an elaborate argument & they stopped being people. Even more frustrating is the fact that there are a number of wonderful & complex characters in this book who get short shrift in favor of the argument.

Despite these shortfalls Haddam does write well & plot well & she manages to keep me wondering who did it so even a less successful book of hers is still entertaining. I'm looking forward to her next book & to getting back to the neighborhood - I want to know how everybody's doing!

Jane Haddam is one of my favorite authors. She builds wonderful rich charactres and writes a story full of twists and surprises. Living Witness is no exception. Gregor Demarkian is finally going to get married, but must first solve yet another mystery. The crime gets him away from wedding planning and places him into the middle of a debate on intellegent design. This story makes the reader think about the rights of individuals with different opinions, religious beliefs and life experiences.

As her other books, Living Witness is entertaining and thought provoking. A must read.

Elisa Robyn, author of Way of the Well

I generally love all of the Demarkian novels, but I was not as excited about this one as I had hoped to be. Still, I found myself reading it to the end, and enjoying it despite the things that irritated me. And that is what it is all about in the end, right?