The Death of an Amiable Child: An Anita Servi Novel (Anita Servi Mysteries) (Hardcover)

by Irene Marcuse (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Irene Marcuse's first novel is a delicately delineated triumph, a quiet mystery that revolves around character and setting rather than hotly pursued clues and frantic detection. Anita Servi, a Manhattan social worker, has made a career of tending to the city's elderly. Crippled by arthritis, plagued by shrinking Social Security checks, relegated to dilapidated residence hotels that, with their fading paint and chipped brickwork, "look like the eccentric aunt who didn't get invited to the wedding over on Broadway," her clients still amaze her with their resilience. All the more shocking, then, for Anita and her daughter Clea to stumble over the body of Lillian Raines on their apartment landing. A former client, now homeless, the frail but dignified "Lady of the Landing" had become a fixture in their daily lives. Though the police term Lillian's death an accident, Anita is unconvinced. As she digs deeper into the old woman's shadowy past, ancient grievances come to light, weaving the fixtures of Anita's life--friends, neighbors, clients, coworkers--into an uneasy web of deception and murder. When more elderly women are threatened, it's up to Anita to unravel the tangled threads.

The sights, sounds, and smells of New York's Upper West Side permeate the book. The city bustles and hums, stretching out before Anita and the reader in an intoxicating, vibrant landscape: "Broadway, the street, puts on as good a show as any theater on the Great White Way. One time, Catherine and I saw a tall black man gamboling around in nothing but a pair of red wool socks. Two cops chased after him, lumbering hippos to his graceful gazelle. It made both our days. Who needs TV talk shows?" For all of its pollution and poverty, New York, through Anita's eyes, softens into an appealingly ungainly, overgrown village. It's the kind of place where all one's creature comforts and quotidian rituals may be satisfied in just a few square blocks, where anonymity gives way to recognition.

Marcuse's affectionately drawn characters, canny dialogue, and adept sense of pace set The Death of an Amiable Child far above the usual cadre of earnest but awkward first novels. Readers should look forward with eager anticipation to Anita Servi's next urban appearance. --Kelly Flynn

From Publishers Weekly
Social worker and transplanted Californian Anita Servi, her cabinetmaker husband, Bruno, and their adopted daughter, Clea, live in a prewar co-op on Manhattan's Upper West Side in this compassionate debut novel. Many of Anita's elderly neighbors are clients at her agency at the nearby Cathedral of St. John the Divine. A typical crazed Monday morning turns even more chaotic when Clea discovers the body of a homeless woman, known only as Lillian, on a landing in the co-op. The local police believe she died from a fall. Not convinced, Anita decides to investigate and becomes embroiled in the doings at the building where Lillian lived, seeing clients and avoiding the management, who have their reasons for not wanting her around. Anita eventually learns that Lillian had some good jewelry and a lot of money as well, so why did she live that way? What was she scared of, and why did she spend a lot of time in Riverside Park at the grave of the Amiable Child? As she asks around, Anita discovers that many seniors are afraid of losing their apartments and are being threatened and intimidated. The tough ones remain, but at what cost? Anita and her family enjoy life in an increasingly gentrified neighborhood, where longtime tenants and newcomers with conflicting values and philosophies must navigate the political minefield of co-op life. Bravo to Marcuse, herself a savvy West Sider with a degree in social work, for this entertaining and engrossing puzzle that also calls attention to serious unresolved social problems. Agent, Sandra Dijkstra. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 227 pages
• Publisher: Walker & Company; First Edition edition (April 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802733468
• ISBN-13: 978-0802733467
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,027,266 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Captures the West Side with heart and soul, November 15, 2000

By	Leigh Henderson (New York) - See all my reviews

This book is about relationships and the ingenuity of a curious social worker to put pieces of a puzzle together. Social Worker Anita Servi doesn't take no for an answer -- she questions authority and goes to the heart of what matters. Author Irene Marcuse is to be congratulated for capturing the West Side of Manhattan -- and not just the varied geography which she does so very well. She shares with us the lives of her characters: the quirkiness of Elizabeth and Catherine, the toughness of the female building Super, the gentleness of the policeman and others who form the wonderful tapestry of personalities and styles. I read this book when I was called to Jury Duty and the clues in the Amiable Child case had me rooting for Anita all the way. Good work by this new author; I look forward to another mystery of relationships to untangle.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't quite make it, October 22, 2000

By	Charlotte Vale-Allen (CT USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I bought this book based on the glowing trade reviews, and, initially, I was very taken with it. There's a fine cast of geriatrics who are well-drawn and believable. The social worker heroine starts out well enough and then turns into one of those irritating women who is forever getting herself into terrible trouble. A whole bunch of people die; so many that it literally became a case of overkill. It's bothersome that the heroine and her husband have adopted a child of color and yet they encounter no problems, either with the child or with the people they meet. What we're given is a child with cornrows and no other discernibly African-American qualities.

I give the author points for a decent first try, and hope that the next book in this series has fewer bodies and a smartened-up heroine.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A hauntiing tale not easily forgotten, June 28, 2000

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Social worker Anita Servi works for Senior Services. Her job description includes keeping the elderly out of nursing homes by providing them with home healthcare, medical transportation, cleaning, and shopping. Anita lives with her husband Bennie and their foster child Clea in a Manhattan Upper West Side co-op filled with many senior citizens she tries to assist even if it is outside the job.

One morning Clea and Anita discover the dead body of Lillian Raines, who had occasionally taken shelter inside the building. Later that week, two of her clients also die and two others were seriously injured in a house accident. The social worker cannot believe all this coincidence, but the police shrug it off as the elderly being elderly. Unsatisfied with the official response, Julia begins her own investigation, which may lead to her being the next victim.

Irene Marcuse's debut novel works because the characters seem so real even as they turn the city into a cement jungle. The cast enables the story line to capture the essence of predators and their victims, lonely senior citizens. The heroine is a strong caring person who serves as a role model for community service. The subplot centering on a manicurist preying on senior citizens not only propels the main story line forward, but adds complexity to a deep tale. THE DEATH OF AN AMIABLE CHILD is a haunting work that leaves a lasting impression on its audience.

Harriet Klausner