Customer Reviews

Mystery

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The "hook" with Peter Straub's novel was that a popular horror author has written a book titled "mystery". Had the author changed genres? This was what I wondered in High School when I first picked up the book. I had read Ghost Story (excellent) by Mr. Straub and was intrigued that he would write a book titled "mystery" with no apparent supernatural creatrues or doings found in the pages. But what authors like Peter Straub remind us of is that horror and fear and dread are all psychological in essence and that you can be scared and affected by a book that has no ghosts or no monsters. "Mystery" stands as a perfect novel in my eyes. While Ghost Story may be Straub's best "horror" novel, and one of the best ever I might add, this novel achieves greatness amongst ANY class of fiction. The characters are wonderful. Straub not only makes you love them, namely Tom Pasmore the antagonist and his mentor Lamont Von Heilitz, but he makes you be there WITH them. You long to learn the mysteries of the past. You long to learn the ways of a sleuth. I was right alongside Tom Pasmore in this story. I felt for him, I grieved with him, and I detected with him. Simple as that. The plot sounds simple but is so much more complex. Tom Pasmore, a young boy who is nearly killed in the beginning of the novel, takes up the art of mystery solving. He is fueled by a wonderful, reclusive neighbor who was once a "detective" himself. Tom then applies his knowledge to try and find a killer in the present and ultimately in the past. Mystery is about a young man's journey into adulthood and the hard truths about life. It is about realizing that secrets and untold truths swirl around us every day and that sometimes finding them out can be satisfying and other times dreadful. I left this story with a sadness in my heart. I simply didn;t want to leave the story. Mystery has suspense. Mystery has heartache. Mystery has, of course, a mystery. But what Mystery has most of is heart. It is simply one of the richest and most haunting stories you will ever read. One final note in case you didn't know. Mystery is the middle book of a trilogy that beings with Koko and ends with The Throat. You don't have to read Koko to read Mystery, and vice versa. But you DO have to read them both before reading The Throat. One more thing... The Throat is almost as good as Mystery. Almost.

This is such an unusual book, and completely addictive after I got the hang of his style. It started off a trifle slowly for me, but became so enjoyable in the character development and story that I went to bed earlier and earlier to read more before drifting off.

Art imitating life, things happened that he didn't neatly tie up and explain within two pages, either for the characters or for us. It's mouth-watering as you move among the richly described socio-economic strata, becoming aware of the depths and shallows of the characters and locales - nothing really single-dimension. True to life, his characters may be strong in some suit, but weak in others. I really enjoyed that Straub doesn't "tell us". He lets us tag along and observe, making our own judgements, as his main character experiences his love, pain, confusion, longings.

Don't think from my description that it's purely an emotional discovery type of book. Plenty of action that's valid (as opposed to gratuitous action scenes), some explained, some not till later.

WHOPPING GREAT READ. Take your time with it and savor it, as you'll be sad to put it down for the last time.

In my childhood -- when summers lasted forever -- I enjoyed reading some books annually at our isolated northern cottage. Now retired, I still do.

Straub's "Mystery" is a good read. It might not rank up there with the so-called "classics" I studied in universities, but I still re-read it because it's a fascinating story about the mysteries in dying, loving, hating, growing up, and living in multiple worlds. It focuses on hope. Definitely not a fantasy or ghost story.

The AUDIO version, unfortunately, left out a lot of the "meat" that makes the book a good read, and is not worth listening to more than once.

Tom's childhood was far from perfect, but he was one of the lucky few who had a magical life. If you are one of those of us who feel that our childhoods were some how magical, you will love this book. Stunningly mature, beautifully written, and shockingly surprising, you will want to read this over and over. I read it until the thing fell apart.
Tom grows up on an island where society is what life centers around. When his eyes become opened after a life threatening accident, he is plunged head first into one of the most startingly mysteries ever known, including a mystery of his own life.
This is one of my all-time favorite books. Do yourself a favor and read this. It will stay with you forever.

Peter Straub's trilogy of "Koko," "Mystery" and "The Throat" is a complex and sometimes overwhelming read. In "Mystery" we meet young Tom Pasmore, who after a near death experience, is able to psychically link to an unsolved murder committed by Blue Rose.

The Blue Rose scenario prevails through this book and is once again resurrected in "The Throat." Trying to figure out who Blue Rose really is turns out to be quite a chore for Tom and his new found friend, Lamont von Heilitz. There are plenty of interesting secondary characters, a pretty vile grandfather, and assorted villains and heroes.

"Mystery" is well constructed and maintains interest a little better than its predecessor, "Koko." With "The Throat," Straub finally hits his mark and makes the trilogy a worthwhile, if difficult, journey.

A friend recommended The Throat and in it I got very attached to Tom Pasmore as a character. I had no idea there was a blue rose trillogy, but the day I finished reading the Throat a second time, I went right out and bought Mystery. Unfortunately, having read Throat, I already knew whoddunit and why.
I'm still very attached to Tom Pasmore as a character after Mystery, but the book itself didn't really amaze me as much as The Throat did. There is certainly more character development in Straub's novels than other horror/mystery writers and I find them more intelligent to read but Mystery wasn't at the level of The Throat, which is nothing short of a masterpiece!

Tom Pasmore, an unusually introspective and intelligent teenager, teams up with the aged, eccentric private detective Lamont von Heilitz to investigate a pair of murders in the mid-60s. Peter Straub develops a compelling mystery with interesting characters and then fails to make it pay off in the end. Tom's near death experience turns out to have no bearing on later events and the resolution of the mystery is pretty much what you would expect; any time you have arrogant, powerful rich characters who treat the protagonist badly, you know that they must be up to their necks in some kind of dirty business. I've read "Koko," the first (and much superior) novel in the so-called Blue Rose trilogy and I fail to see any connection between them, other than the fact that Tom reads a novel that was written by one of the characters from "Koko." This is not one of Straub's best.

Of Straub's "Blue Rose" murder mystery trilogy, this middle entry is probably my favorite, though The Throat is his best. It has a weak start and takes a while to warm up, but once it does it reads very well.

What makes this one work is the characters, especially amateur sleuth Tom Pasmore and his mentor, Lamont Von Heilitz, an elderly Sherlock Holmes who is presented as the original model for Lamont Cranston, radio's "The Shadow." The girlfriend Pasmore picks up along the way livens things up considerably, as well.

Something prevalent in all Straub's work, and especially so here, is status consciousness and the American caste system of money. Pasmore is from the wrong side of the tracks - i.e., "not rich" - and manages to get himself sleuthing around the upper crust, to the resentment of imminently less noble characters with larger bank accounts and trust funds. Straub has a true detective's sense of crime and its motivations - namely, sex and money - and he presents them very credibly. More importantly, he convincingly portrays the strata of corruption that money breeds, and the way it maintains itself.

This is a very strong, typically well-plotted Straub story, whose flaws are a rather slow start and too great a length. The story is standard murder mystery fare - it's the characters and the style in which it is told that make it worthwhile.

Once again Peter Straub proves himself to be a talented writer. This book, one-third of the Blue Rose trilogy, is set in the mid-60's and features Tom Pasmore, a teenager who is thrown into the middle of a mystery that goes back 40 years. With the help of an eccentric neighbor, Tom uncovers family secrets, conspiracies and other intriguing information.

"Mystery" was my first Peter Straub read and, as itwas billed a horror story, I was skeptical of beginning the book. Anymisgivings soon evaporated as I pored through this account of magnifincent characters. The story is at once, fantastic and realistic, and leads the reader through a labyrinth of detail and mysticism. Although part of the trilogy including "Koko" and "The Throat," Peter Straub writes so well that each of the three titles can be read in any order without destroying the image of the others. It's about time we do Mr. Straub justice and give him credit for crossing genre lines. Won't he be happy to see many new faces in cyberlines at Amazon?!!