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Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Claire "Gram" Du Lac, wealthy elderly inhabitant of Quebec, hires Brigid Donovan, recovering alcoholic at 52, to look into the murder of her son-in-law in Maine and to write a history of a group called H.O.P.E. Before realizing Claire's true motives, Brigid becomes enmeshed in a tangle of family secrets that seems to involve all of her friends. Fascinating odd characters and strange circumstances abound, but they are confusing and contrived at times. While this novel is attractive in some ways, it is also uneven; a marginal purchase.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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More About the Author
Karen was a colonial child, second generation American born in Panama. Her childhood growing up colonial, learning racism and chauvinism, was captured in short stories that were brought together in a collection named "El Valle Panama" and published by the St. Francis Press, Orland, Maine. It is available through h.o.m.e., Inc., Orland.
Despite some success in publishing poetry and short stories, Karen's attempts to publish her first serious novel, "A Midsummer Night's Dream", set on an island off the coast of Maine, failed to do better than to be seriously considered before being rejected. She then decided to try her hand at murder mysteries. She succeeded with her first try.
Losing her position as a professor at the University of Maine after being outed in 1973 by a Unitarian minister in Augusta, Maine, Karen took to earning her living at various occupations, none of them paying well, but all considerably more interesting than teaching history. And all of them providing rich material for story telling.
In 1981, at age forty-five, Karen started to work at an unusual non-profit called h.o.m.e., Inc. in Orland, Maine. There she helped found a printing press called The St. Francis Press, which publishes a couple titles a year. It was through this press that Karen finally saw her more serious work in print.
At present, retired and spending half the year in the land of her birth, Panama, and half in her adopted land, Maine, Karen is working at something which she finds somewhat scary. She is calling the pieces Fables.
Despite some success in publishing poetry and short stories, Karen's attempts to publish her first serious novel, "A Midsummer Night's Dream", set on an island off the coast of Maine, failed to do better than to be seriously considered before being rejected. She then decided to try her hand at murder mysteries. She succeeded with her first try.
Losing her position as a professor at the University of Maine after being outed in 1973 by a Unitarian minister in Augusta, Maine, Karen took to earning her living at various occupations, none of them paying well, but all considerably more interesting than teaching history. And all of them providing rich material for story telling.
In 1981, at age forty-five, Karen started to work at an unusual non-profit called h.o.m.e., Inc. in Orland, Maine. There she helped found a printing press called The St. Francis Press, which publishes a couple titles a year. It was through this press that Karen finally saw her more serious work in print.
At present, retired and spending half the year in the land of her birth, Panama, and half in her adopted land, Maine, Karen is working at something which she finds somewhat scary. She is calling the pieces Fables.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A compelling badly-written book,
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This review is from: Murder is Relative (Paperback)
I am not sure why, but I can't seem to stop reading this poorly-written book. It's not the plot, which is far too convoluted and devoid of interest to sustain serious inquiry. The writing style is tedious and sophomoric. The character are charmless, primarily recovering alcoholics in 12-step programs and nuns (and a main character who is both).The conceit is that an old woman hires the main character (Bridgid Donovan) to write a history of a very small non-profit Catholic charity called H.O.P.E. (Helping Others, the Poor Especially). One wonders what the market share of such a book might be. Just this premise alone stretches the bounds of belief. Why would someone write such a book? Why would someone read such a book? A secondary (or primary) agenda however emerges in a related investigation of a murder, which is so labyrinthine and involves totally undeveloped characters in all kinds of tangential relationships with each other, that one tunes out all developments in this plot completely rather than dwell on something of such little interest. Every once in a while however, Saum focuses in on something picturesque about Quebec City or Manhattan that keeps me plodding along.
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