Customer Reviews

Murder at Spoleto

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The world famous Spoleto music festival is the setting for this nail biter of a novel. Part farce, part suspence, this first novel by a husband wife team of medical experts is graced both by a driving plot and the obvious medical expertise of the authors. One thing this novel never does is take itself too seriously, and there is its strength. Bravo!

Charleston characters, customs, cuisine, and history run through every paragraph of this thriller that will not only keep you on the edge of your seat but make you disturb your neighbors with laughter. You had better have one of those golden screws in your navel holding it on lest you laugh your a... off. Each character is so life-like you want to talk to them. Each death is so unique can you figure out if it is foul play, or in the case of the third death fowl play. When cyanide shows up as a bioterrorist threat to wipe out the lowcountry things move along at a rapid clip to an amazing climax, wrapped around local spirituals and 300-year old history. Buy it today but read it in a sound proof booth.

Only Charlestonians could have captured the unique culture and characters of the Holy City so perfectly. Every page is filled with wry humor and local color. The authors are to be congratulated for their ability to use the most precise forensic sciences like CSI, the most devastating characterizations like Biography, with believeable protagonists like Law and Order all wrapped in the style of Tom Clancey combined with Saturday Night Live. As poisoning and murder begin to take center stage there is news of a shipment of a half-million lethal doses of cyanide that threatens a bioterrorist event in this usually pleasant community. Leading Charleston families will recognize not only their names but their behaviors in this gripping story that wraps todays and tomorrows events around 300 years of history with an ending you won't guess. Read it in one setting, but be sure you won't disturb your neighbors with your laughing out loud at every page if not every paragraph. Where is the sequel?

Leaping from today's headlines this mystery skilfully weaves Charleston's culture and characters around a don't-put-me-down mystery. At the annual arts festival, Spoleto, stars triumph then die on stage. The first might be an accident as the diva is impaled on a bassoon "like a stuffed shrimp at Shucks." Then in an irreverent passion play, in which Pilate gets to flip for the sentence, the actor playing Christ dies on the cross. Two accidents in three days? Bad luck? Or murder. Bubba, the sleuth, and Mary Elizabeth, the medical examiner, team up in romance and using the most modern science, right out of CSI. When the prima ballerina collapses in convulsions, foul play must be on stage, but it takes all their ingenuity to discover the cause and the culprits and not before a shipment of cyanide threatens to end Spoleto and Charleston. Humourous mayhen with action on every page makes this a must-read and not so much scary as fun.

Leigh Thompson was a medical news reporter for NBC-TV. He built three of the first Intensive Care Units, was a Professor of Medicine, wrote countless scientific papers and lectured worldwide. He has a Ph.D. in Pharmacology and an MD. Maurice is a high school teacher and assistant to the Editor of the Women's Page of the local newspaper. She has many interests, including history and preservation, as well as science and producing meetings worldwide.

Charleston presents the Spoleto Festival each Memorial Day, which includes theater, opera, dance, and music. But this year's festival is conducted by an arrogant and cruel maestro whose captivating opera turns out to be a tale twisting Charleston's history into a craven story of debauchery. To add injury to insult, the diva topples into the orchestra pit just as she is hitting her climactic celestial note, impaling herself on an antique bassoon. Two more performances yield the same number of deaths. Is it mayhem, or murder? It is up to Medical Examiner Mary Elizabeth's team and a local football hero criminologist named Bubba to figure out the score:

"`Not quite so fast, Dr. Simons,' replied Dirk. `We've still got one peak on the blood analysis that I can't find in urine, in hair, in the vitreous humor, or in any of the pill bottles we have sampled. We've never seen this peak before in this laboratory and it is not in the usual references about drugs.'"

The team of Maurice and Leigh Thompson produce a fairly credible mystery yarn. Although it is evident that science and medicine is their love...they pay attention to the details of the plot thoroughly enough to keep the reader immersed in scientific procedures in pharmacology protocols while masking the true killer. Their sense of humor is ribald, and characters are drawn out to create an enjoyable theater of the absurd in which the scientists and detectives have to function. The ending is eye-opening and somewhat tragic, which brings the reader full circle in this irreverent tale of intrigue. This reviewer's guess is that the authors had a great time writing this book. It is one funny mystery from a couple who offer up a lifetime of fascinating experiences to bring to their craft.

Shelley Glodowski
Reviewer