Customer Reviews

Sandra Nichols Found Dead: A Novel

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

 

 

I've been a fan of the late George V. Higgins for years. His "Kennedy for the Defense" features one of the best lawyer protagonists I've ever read in a mystery. I also thoroughly enjoyed his other stuff, both Kennedy and non-Kennedy. So I was really thrilled to pick up "Sandra Nichols Found Dead" in the bargain bin last time I was in Barnes and Noble.

In this one, Kennedy is pressured by an old friend who's a judge into taking on a civil case, which Kennedy is quick to tell us he doesn't usually do. Kennedy is supposed to represent the children of the much-married decedent Sandra Nichols, who everyone knows was knocked off by her rich playboy husband, but no one can prove it. Pretty classic mystery plot and I expected to have the usual fun watching Kennedy work. I have to say, I'm a bit disappointed.

For one thing, the book is talky. VERY talky. One of the jacket blurbs describes Higgins as "a master of dialogue." Here he seems to be a master of monologue. An awful lot of the first 150 pages of the book is exposition. Worse, it's told in the form of Kennedy telling us about reading a transcript of the investigating officer's testimony of what other people told the officer about the victim's background. So what you see is somebody reading somebody else talking about what a third person told them about what happened to a fourth person. In addition, everybody in the book has a tendency to ramble, veering off on one tangent after another, until the reader is about to scream "will you GET ON WITH IT, for Chrissakes?"

In addition, Kennedy himself seems old and tired. There's none of the flash and wit that made "Kennedy for the Defense" such a classic. Because he spends the bulk of his time listening to people, he seems mostly passive. He only really seems to come alive towards the end, when he begins developing a relationship with a woman he meets during the investigation, but by then it's just too little, too late.

The only thing that makes the book readable at all is Higgin's mastery of characterization. The characters are believably complex and interesting and the reader does end up caring what happens to them. But, in the long run, not a heck of a lot does happen in this book. No real surprises, no real deduction, and in the end, no real satisfaction. I had to force myself to finish this one, and since Higgins won't be writing anymore, it makes me sad that this is the last one of his I read.

When I read "The Friends of Eddy Coyle" years ago, it had a huge impact on my writing...I thought it was one of the most exciting books I'd read in years. Being from Boston, too, I was thrilled, because so few novels coming out of my town really capture its gritty quality...and the dialogue...primo!!!
The I read "The Verdict" and saw the movie...wow.

And then I wandered away and didn't read anything else by George V. Higgins for years. I just picked up the Recorded Books, Inc. book on tape of "Sandra Nichols" at the library, as read by the incomparable George Guidall and I was blown away by how great Higgins is with characterization and dialogue. I note that a previous reviewer found the book too "talky," but I am a reader who LOVES dialogue...good dialogue...it's so rare. I could riff on GVH's characters ad infinitum.

For all those writers who need a lesson in writing great dialogue, and readers who adore fun, juicy, quirky characters, and for all those literary people who believe that CHARACTER IS FATE, then this novel is for you.

Thank you, again, Mr. Higgins, for being there.

Sadly, George V. Higgins's writing career was an object lesson in the perils of believing your own press. "The Friends of Eddie Coyle," his first, is an indisputable neo-noir champ. But it was also his undoing. Reviewers and peers fell over one another to praise his ear for the language of the street, and all his subsequent novels trip over their excessive flexing of that particular muscle. The underlying story of "Sandra Nichols Found Dead," featuring attorney Jerry Kennedy, has great potential, but it is buried within the first few pages under an avalanche of rambling, tedious dialogue from which it never digs itself out.

I'm a fan of Higgins, and his Kennedy series. This entry, however, is not at all representative of his work. The dialogue takes tangents from tangents. Skip it.