Customer Reviews

Mortal Friends: A Novel

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've always loved the intrigue of Washington, DC - but never knew the initials stood for Deliciously Criminal. Jane Stanton Hitchcock is one of my most favorite authors (and yes, one of my most favorite people on the planet). Who else could conjure up a completely compelling crime story, and weave it into the treacherous social fabric of our capital city - so true to life that the rich, elegant, brilliant movers and shakers are indeed suspects in all nefarious doings? Only Hitchcock. She aims her pen at the hearts and souls of these guys - and gals - and nails it each time. If you've enjoyed Hitchcock before, you'll devour MORTAL FRIENDS. Buy a copy - then buy one for your best friend - and maybe one for a mortal enemy. Did you see Jane on the TODAY SHOW? great interview....find it on line. This book is a five-star felony.

...and Mortal Friends is NOT War and Peace. But, she is a good writer and Mortal Friends, like her four previous novels, is a very good read.

Hitchcock writes in the first person and the protagonist in her previous three books was a women "of a certain age", prominent in New York City society. Her adventures on the social scene in NYC were interestingly played out and Hitchcock is a master at defining the ins and outs of that segment of New York high society, ie. living on the UES and active on charity boards.

In her new book, Hitchcock has moved the scene to Washington DC. Her protagonist is a youngish, single woman, an owner of a Georgetown antiques store, who is active on the Washington DC social scene. Here, the merely wealthy businessmen and bankers are joined by politicians, lobbyists, and other characters unique to Washington DC. The story has a murder, several, actually, and Hitchcock gives the reader a great, and varied, supporting cast to Reven Lynch, her main character.

Hitchcock is a good writer - she really is - and Mortal Friends, like her four previous novels has an easy flow to it. You'll enjoy it.

Mysteries are all the more intriguing when mixed with power, seasoned with adultery, deception, the wealthy, and served from an exciting location. Jane Stanton Hitchcock has that formula down pat as we saw in Social Crimes and Trick of the Eye. She again followed this pattern with her latest, Mortal Friends.

The scene is Washington, D.C. and there's a serial killer dubbed the Beltway Baser on the loose. He seems to have a bent for female victims and left his latest in Georgetown, enclave of the rich and political. One of the many who devours news re the murders is Reven Lynch, owner of an upscale antique shop. Reven (so named because it's `never' spelled backward and her parents never expected to have a child) is very attractive, and knows who to hang out with. Her good friend, Violet, is wed to a wealthy banker.

While one might think never the twain would never meet Reven does meet George Gunner, a detective assigned to investigate the murders. He believes that the killings are tied to a very important person (VIPs aren't on his speed dial), so he enlists the help of Reven to help him navigate the corridors of push and plunder.

Ooops, the suspect that George comes up with is not at all who Reven would have thought, and she finds herself in a very sticky situation (that's an understatement).

Enjoy!

- Gail Cooke

This book is very predictable. The beginning was okay, but it did not grab my attention. I forced myself to continue reading. The middle got better though still predictable, but then it ended like a bad lifetime movie. I wasted my time reading this book.

What a great away to get away from all your worries - so much fun - not great literature but never boring or draggy!

Just a suggestion, do NOT start this book thinking you'll just read a little here and there. I put off everything so I could finish this book! I absolutely loved Ms. Hitchcock's previous novels, and was a little bummed to see she didn't continue on with Jo Slater, but within the first couple chapters of this book, I was thinking 'Jo who?'

I really liked the main character here, Reven Lynch, even if she was a little flighty at times (especially near the end). I thought numerous times I had everything figured out, only to be completely wrong! This is not at ALL a predictable, high society whodunit. There are a few mini-stories going on all at the same time, but it's never confusing or too much...who is Cynthia Rinehart, and how exactly does she spend her money? Is the Beltway Basher someone in the upper crust of society, and how does he choose his victims? Does Reven REALLY know the people who are closest to her?

Overall, I DEFINITELY recommend this. Ms. Hitchcock has a real knack for portraying an image of high society without making it seem silly and unrealistic. If you're at all interested in reading this, I say go for it, and when you've finished, pick up 'Social Crimes' and 'One Dangerous Lady', also excellent Hitchcock novels.

If you're searching for some type of Louis Auchincloss novel of manners where dust settles gently on a leather bound book as the autumn sun slips beneath the horizon or a gauzy soft-focus novella in the manner of Marina Rust's "Gatherings" populated by characters full of patrician self-loathing and ennui look elsewhere. Jane Stanton Hitchcock presents us with a "murderers row" of personalities who are all stranded at the peculiar Washington intersection of income, intellect, and influence. From the outset it is clear that each and everyone of these people is capable of murder and in dispensing with the trivialities of their individual existences she allows each one of her characters to breath down the back of your neck, take you by the hand, and brush their lips along the nape of your neck. To be sure they have issues and the first order of business on any given day in DC is establishing and protecting their territory and murder really is one of the least offensive crimes that many of the denizens of the Capitol have committed. As has been widely reported many of the characters in this book are reputed to based upon current inhabitants but to simply dismiss this novel as a lightweight beach read is a mistake for in the same manner that Joyce understood the citizens of Dublin and presented them in a less than flattering light to make a point about religion Hitchcock employs the same ruse to make a point about naked political and personal ambition. According to Hitchcock, "A lot of serial killers have accomplices" and in Washington many people have assistants. They both serve the same purpose. So take some time this summer and spend a few hours with some "Big people, doing big things, in a big way and making no excuses for it." You'll never view the rich and powerful in the same light again. If Mick Jagger had written a song about Washington instead of warning the unsuspecting not to "Bite the Big Apple" lest they "bite the maggots" he might have told them to "Throw the lid back on the capitol dome because there's a lot of rot in that pot." Shattered indeed.

'No woman has ever told the whole truth of her life'. Isadore Duncan

Reven Lynch is one of the most truthful women in Washington, D.C, and that is sumthin' since most people lie because that is how the city and the government runs. She is blunt and says what she thinks, and she is wrong, oh, so wrong about most people. As you know, just when we think we know what direction our life is going, Mother Nature takes a hand and plays tricks on us- nothing is ever what it seems. Reven, note her name spelled backwards is 'never', is one of those people who want it all and want it now. Well, she is used to waiting until what she wants comes along and that does not seem to happen, she is still waiting. But, Reven is someone we like, right away. We can trust her, and she seems to know the inside scoop on Washington and she tells all.

Reven has been best friends with Violet since they were roommates at a girl's school. They tell each other everything. Violet's husband, Grant is President of the Potomac Bank, a prestigious job that allows them to be the cream of the crop in D.C. society. Reven is part of the in group since she knows Violet. This night at the Kennedy Center they are discussing the latest serial murder of a young woman in the park. Violet is a secret lover of serial murders and knows everything there is to
know. We also meet some of the rest of the cream of DC- Cynthia Rinehart, the latest millionaire philanthropist, Bob Poll, the older man single man who dates the beautiful women, Zach Greiter, the Senator from Nebraska,the ambassadors and their wives and the other sundry people who make up the elite. All of these people play a part in the daily life of Reven and Violet, and this is the stuff dreams are made of.

Jane Stanton Hitchcock, the author, has publicized this novel as a mystery. It is closer to a social tale with one or two mysteries entwined. It is a fun book, and just when you think you know what is going on a new character is introduced that upsets the apple cart. There is romance and deceit, adultery, murder, strippers,detectives, antique shoppes, the high and the mighty, and the dressers at the local mall who know all the gossip. The characters are multi-faceted, remember when I told you nothing is as it seems? The stories are real and sometimes exaggerated, but we have the inside scoop on the city. This is a town where the facade really matters, and the inner self is explored but not too soon and not too deep. A novel of relationships and how they develop and grow or not. A few surprises that come at you fast and furious at times, but Reven has things under control, doesn't she?

I have never found Washington D.C. to be so tantalizing and part of the charm of this novel, is the descriptions of the city,the streets, the buildings and their inhabitants. The restaurants we have heard of, the glamorous parties, and the secrets that are part of the upper crust. The 'Beltway Basher' and the mysteries within. The jewels that are rocks and the people who wear them. I must email my Senator and ask him, "what is it that you do, really?"

Highly Recommended. prisrob 07-02-09

The Witches' Hammer

Trick of the Eye

When I got this book I stopped answering the phone or walking the dog--it was impossible to put down. Jane Stanton Hitchcock writes mysteries which are intelligent and responsible. She knows how to keep a plot moving and how to clue the reader in just enough to keep the reader thinking and guessing. This novel is set in social Washington, and its scenes and characters bring the whole city to vivid fascinating life. Hitchcock is the capital's Balzac but she doesn't stop there, she builds a fabulous intricate story on this portrait of a city. What is evil and how does it appear to us; would we know it if we saw it? These are serious questions embedded in a beautifully drawn plot by a writer who knows exactly what she is doing. Great read!

The plot was VERY predictable--I had pegged the serial killer within the first 30 pages. Correctly guessing the killer didn't ruin the book for me or anything, but if you're looking for a book that will keep you on your toes...this isn't it.
A further gripe I have with the book is that it was poorly written. Again, fine for an entertaining beach read, but not for a quality mystery.
All in all I enjoyed myself while reading "Mortal Friends," yet would recommend many other mysteries before this one.