Telling of Lies: A Mystery [Hardcover]

Timothy Findley (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This entertaining mystery is another auspicious entry in the Delta Fiction line (see review above). An iceberg is spotted floating off the coast of Maine on the shores of the beautiful old Aurora Sands Hotel, or ASH as it is fondly called by its aging and wealthy clientele. The ASH has been sold, and the chilling iceberg turns out to be a bad omen; one of the guests, Calder Maddox, an evil pharmaceutical mogul, dies, and foul play is suspected. Though it has all the trimmings of an ordinary mysterythe discovery of a corpse, the search for clues, a complex plot and the kidnapping of a witnessthis multilayered novel transcends the genre. A skillful narrative is distinguished by delightful passages and is drolly narrated by Vanessa Van Horne, a landscape architect and the adventure's sleuth ("I felt as a terrorist might feel as he approaches his target. I, however, did not carry the explosives; the explosives walked beside me in a Carlos Ribriona suit"). The scrupulous Vanessa finds the killerand that the telling of lies is a double-edged sword with both pernicious and benevolent implications. Findley's ( Not Wanted on the Voyage , etc.) combination of the morbid subject of deathof a man, an era and certain valueswith a witty style renders this a unique and memorable tale of intrigue. Mystery Guild Book Club featured alternate.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Viking Pr; First Canadian edition (June 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670810835
• ISBN-13: 978-0670810833
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,202,373 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A rich and interesting mystery from a fine novelist, January 21, 2000

By 

David J. Loftus (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Telling of Lies (Paperback)

Timothy Findley is a former actor and radio performer and scriptwriter from Canada who has written one incredible novel (_Not Wanted On the Voyage_) and quite a few good ones. There is no such thing as a "characteristic" Findley novel, and this is no exception.

With _The Telling Of Lies_, the author takes on the murder mystery genre, but of course it's not your typical mystery. It takes place on the south coast of Maine, at a resort hotel with an assortment of characters. The narrator/protagonist, a middle-aged woman, not only tackles and solves the mystery, but intersperses the main plot with memories of her experiences in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp during the Second World War.

The story is well told. I liked this book better than _Famous Last Words_ (though it is a less complicated and momentous story) and _The Piano Man's Daughter_, about as much as _The Butterfly Plague_ and his memoir/essay collection _Inside Memory_, but not as much as his masterpiece, _Not Wanted On the Voyage_.

3.0 out of 5 stars A murder mystery?, February 2, 2009

By 

e. verrillo (williamsburg, ma) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Telling of Lies (Paperback)

Findley's book, Telling of Lies, is supposed to be a murder mystery. A man is found dead in his chair at a beach resort. He is an elderly man, so his death is not remarkable, yet the doctor who first examines his body suspects foul play. All well and good. Murder mysteries are supposed to be about foul play. The only problem is that the good doctor never gives the slightest hint as to WHY he suspects foul play. I kept going back over the pages, trying to find some logic behind his conclusion. The evidence to support it eventually arrives at the end of the book, by which time I had lost interest.

While I enjoyed the telling of the tale - Findley is a good writer - the lack of logic, the loose ends that are never tied up in any satisfactory way, the unconvincing nature of the characters and their interactions, simply did not produce a good novel. The greatest drawback, however, was the device through which the story is told - a journal. It was nearly impossible to get a sense of any plot continuity with the all the jumbled (undated!) journal entries. And while the back story of the narrator was interesting, it really didn't serve any purpose other than to further bog down the story.

One of these days Findley will write a good novel. But this wasn't it.