The Weeping Buddha [Paperback]

Heather Dune Macadam (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2002

New Year’s Eve: Long Island detectives Devon Halsey and Lochwood Brennen, secret lovers, are thrust into mayhem by the grisly murder of Devon’s best friend. What has haunted Devon for years begins to take shape, and as she dissects the file, she learns that the carvings in the victims’ bodies are actually Koans—unanswerable questions that must be meditated upon in order to reach enlightenment.

Heather Dune Macadam is a professor at Suffolk County Community College and a former dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company. She is the author of Rena’s Promise, a nonfiction memoir about Auschwitz, which was nominated for a National Book Award. Her writing has appeared in Newsweek and the New York Times Sunday Magazine.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Zen koans lie at the heart of Heather Dune Macadam's literary first mystery, The Weeping Buddha, in which two Long Island cops have the misfortune to know both of the murder victims at a Suffolk County crime scene. Macadam's nonfiction book, Rena's Promise: A Story of Sisters at Auschwitz, was nominated for a National Book Award.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

“Heather Dune Macadam should be included in that rare category of literary mystery masters such as Lawrence Block, Craig Holden, and Giles Blunt, whose lyrical prose and beautifully developed characters have a great deal to say about the troubled world we live in and its legacy of violence.”
--Kaylie Jones, author of Celeste Ascending and A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries -- Review

The Weeping Buddha is a remarkable first mystery. -- Kate's Mystery Books Newsletter, Nov. 2002

[Macadam's] writing is exquisite...[a] very impressive and a damn good, thought-provoking read -- Poisoned Pen Newsletter, Nov. 2002

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 350 pages
• Publisher: Akashic Books; First Edition edition (October 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1888451394
• ISBN-13: 978-1888451399
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,724,027 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

HEATHER DUNE MACADAM'S first book, was RENA'S PROMISE: A STORY OF SISTERS IN AUSCHWITZ, is a memoir about the 716th woman in Auschwitz. Published by Beacon Press in October 1995, and nominated for the National Book Award, the Christopher Awards, the American Jewish Awards and the National Library Association Awards. RENA'S PROMISE has been published in the United Kingdom, Turkey, Japan and Germany (where it was book of the month in Sept. 1997). Ms. Macadam is active in fighting against Holocaust denial social networks by disseminating Rena's story through YouTube, MySpace and her fan club on Facebook.

THE WEEPING BUDDHA, Ms. Macadam's first novel, was released by Akashic Books in 2003. Based in part on a true story it is the fiction that attempts to deal with an unsolved mystery in Ms. Macadam's life and was nominated for an Edgar; it was a finalist in the Nero Wolf Awards (2004); it was also a finalist for Best Mystery in the Lambda Awards (2004).

As commentator for NPR, Ms. Macadam's quirky essays can be heard on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. Additionally, she has been published in The New York Times, Newsweek, Marie Claire, The Guardian, The Daily Mail, YOU Magazine(Sunday Supplement to Mail on Sunday), The Advocate and RACING HOME: SHORT STORIES BY AWARD-WINNING NORTH CAROLINA WRITERS (Paper Journey Press) where one reviewer referred to her as "an archangel with an avenging pen."

Ms. Macadam began her career as a performance artist and dancer with the Martha Graham Contemporary Dance Company. After an accident prematurely ended her performing career she began writing. Dancers are fairly quiet people but since she discovered writing, she hasn't shut up!

She received a Masters in Creative Writing from Southampton College, where she studied with Jules Feiffer, Roger Rosenblatt, Kaylie Jones (A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries), and Booker Prize nominees, Gerard O' Donovan and Brian O'Doherty. She has been awarded SCAD Presidential Grant for Research (2006) to conduct research on the poet Phillis Wheatley, a PEN American stipend (1997), THE WINSTON-SALEM EMERGING ARTIST GRANT (1996), OUTSTANDING WRITER OF THE YEAR in North Carolina (1995), and THE RONDTHALER AWARD for poetry (1993). She divides her time between New York and Herefordshire, England, and is a frequent visitor to Hay on Wye and the Hay Literary Festival.

Ms. Macadam teaches Creative Nonfiction and Journalism at SUNY Stony Brook Southampton and Creative Writing at the Young American Writers Program at Southampton College's renowned Summer Writer's Conference (regular guests to her classes include: Billy Collins, Frank McCourt, Melissa Banks and Amy Tan).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Author's Note, September 25, 2002

By 

Heather Dune Macadam (NY, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Weeping Buddha (Paperback)

This may be my only way to speak to you directly, both as a potential buyer of this book and as a fan. So, let me just say that while some people don't see the connection between my creative nonfiction work and my fiction, in my opinion making a connection between Nazis and serial killers is not a stretch. And while this is a work of fiction--there is an element of truth to the story.

I was twenty-three the night Sam Todd disappeared from our New Year's Eve Party in Chinatown, and have been writing endings to the mystery of Sam Todd's disappearance ever since. I suppose this story is an attempt to put that past to rest. I got the idea during Soka Gokkai-an all-night meditation for Buddha's birthday-and was so enthralled with the idea that I left the Zendo hours before dawn to begin writing.

The question of Sam Todd had been haunting me for years, until finally it seemed that the only way to exorcise the past was to make it fiction. As a part of my research I went into the New York Times archives at the NYU Library and pulled up the old articles about Sam, the loft, the party. I copied them, made notes on them, remembered things about that time of my life. On my way out of the library I headed down West Fourth toward the East Village, and the now trendy area called NoHo. A bitter wind blasted off the East River and darkness descended as it does around those old factory buildings-quick and dense. I looked up and down Lafayette Street still able to hear his name echoing down the alleyways, our voices forever calling him to come home.

Until that moment, I thought I had left New York City because I was burned out, my career as a professional dancer over. Standing there on Lafayette, a few blocks from my old loft-a few doors down from the homeless shelter where we had scouted for Sam, night after ruthless night-I realized that I left New York because Sam Todd left me on the dance floor to get a breath of fresh air and never returned. Ever.

THE WEEPING BUDDHA is my worst nightmare made manifest in fiction. It is the result of imagination being left alone too long with an unanswerable riddle-a Zen Koan, if you will. What really happened to Sam Todd?

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent !, November 21, 2002

By 

Gina Villamil (Guaynabo, PR USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Weeping Buddha (Paperback)

This is definitely a book that you want to keep
reading until finish. You can see the author's research
in the NY times.. At certain point I was reading a non
fiction novel. The detail of every character gives
you the feeling of knowing them, also physically. I loved
also the way chapters were written , you don't loose anything.. it all clicked. I give her a 10 !

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I couldn't put it down, October 15, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Weeping Buddha (Paperback)

This book is a great read!...I started to read - just for a little while, then had to order takeout for dinner and turn my phone off for the evening. I hope this is just the beginning of a series. I need more of Devon and Loch on the trail of criminals...and more of Boo. Best of all was the dialogue - none of that stilted filler I often find, real dialogue, and wonderful description, I felt like I was walking in the streets of lower Manhattan, and on the main drag of Sag Harbor.
Please write more!...