A Field of Darkness

Cornelia Read's debut novel tells of a cynical, hard-bitten woman as she takes an interest in the fates of two generation-old, brutal, unsolved murders. The story is well set, flows nicely and parcels out clues and red herrings at the right pace. And thank the gods she didn't try to run a couple dozen subplots--this is a focused story. What I liked best, though, was Read's writing style. You know how sometimes there's an author whose turn of phrase you just like--who could make a grocery list interesting? That is what struck me here. They say that an author's work is to put into words what most need to say but lack the phrasing. At this art--and it is a rare one in an era of plodding writing--Read is simply outstanding, a tremendously incisive chooser of the right metaphor. I found myself most interested to see what she'd come up with next. The other area that impressed me most was character development. The protagonist's oft-disappointed humanity breathes and has a pulse. Read juggles quite a few characters and does them well. Interestingly, if there was a single child in the book (save reminisces by adults), I don't remember him or her. I sense that this was deliberate but I haven't figured out why--could be anything from puckish playfulness to an atmosphere-setter. Could be the author, a mother of twins, had strong personal reservations about children in a setting where violent murders occur. The mystery/crime novel folks will like Read, but her style and skill will reel in a much broader audience. Me, for example.

A FIELD OF DARKNESS, a debut novel by Cornelia Read. Madeline Dare, is the central character. The author has created a refreshingly, different fictional character. Madeline is employed as a food and drink columnist, in a small town newspaper. She is complex, streetwise, a closet debutante. She comes across as nervous, certainly not too refined and is blessed with a unique sense of humour and maybe slightly pessimistic. Much of this , I would assume would derive from the attitude of a certain branch of her own family! All of which enhances her personality. She lives in upstate New York. She does not particularly like the town in which she lives. This changes, when her often absent husband, Dean, is once again back in town! The story starts, quite unobtrusively. The year is 1988. Syracuse. A pair of dog tags discovered in a field. Buried in the same place, where several years before, the bodies of two murdered girls were unearthed. The killer(s) were never found. The real shock for Madeline is seeing the name on the tags. The name of Lapthorne Townsend, her own second cousin and a great favourite of hers. Madeline, against her own better judgement, and certainly those of her friends, decides to try and discover the truth. Her investigations lead her to her child-hood home where old family secrets are unlocked. She realises the full impact of proceeding with her quest, when another murder takes place. Increasingly, Maddie becomes concerned with her own safety. As the events progress, we are introduced to other characters. Ellis is Madeline's best friend. Where Maddie has self doubts, would take time to second guess before actually committing herself, Ellis is completely different. Her maxim on life, is do it now. She very quickly, and with some pangs of jealousy from Maddie, falls for the handsome Lapthorne. Her work colleagues, Simon, Wilt and Ted (the boss from hell) offer little in the way of constructional help as Maddie struggles to come to terms with the way her investigation is progressing. Cousin Binty. Discover her for yourself, if you will. But tread with care!. Kenny, landlord of the Town's local drinking place, becomes something of a Father figure. Offering Maddie advice relating to the investigation, as well as concern for her immediate well-being. Sufficient just to add, that the ending of the book is as exciting as it is suspenseful. A FIELD OF DARKNESS, is an enjoyable, and entertaining read. It's real success lies in the writing. Hard to define exactly, but because of this the theme of the story seems completely fresh. The characters are vivid and there are some delightful one line phrases - quote, `Later that night I'd asked Kenny where he'd gone to college. His answer won my heart: "Vietnam. It was pass-fail."` There are also some well observed culture references. All in all, it is a really good read. It's..... different. !

A FIELD OF DARKNESS starts, quite literally, like a house afire. The house that catches on fire --- burned down for the insurance money --- is in Syracuse. So is heroine Madeline Dare, and the house may be in better shape. Madeline is 25, a refugee from the Old Money, Eastern Socially Attractive world of the Hamptons and the Great Camps of the Adirondacks. (Perhaps the most cutting insult Madeline gets in the course of the book is a reminder from a frosty relative that she won't be allowed to buy back her parents' share in the family campground.) So instead of summers by the lake replete with Southside cocktails (gin, lemon and syrup with a mint garnish) and winters spent indoors contemplating Winslow Homer originals and the crimes of one's forefathers, Madeline ends up in upstate New York, working for the local paper, writing about "winter drinks," green bean casserole recipes, and the wonders of the midway at the 1988 New York State Fair. You hear about culture shock, as poor Madeline experiences cultural cardiac arrest. But Madeline (who reminds us that Syracuse is in the top four in the country in Cool Whip consumption) is not the first of her tribe to make the trip upstate from the Hamptons; her cousin Lapthorne was there years before, as a soldier at Camp Drum in the late sixties. He was there, as it turns out, at the same time as the famous murder of the unnamed, enigmatic "Rose Girls," left stark and alone in a cornfield garlanded in red and white flowers. And it turns out that one of Madeline's rustic in-laws has found Lapthorne's dog tags while plowing that very field. That's the mystery at the center of A FIELD OF DARKNESS, and it has a lot to recommend --- tragedy, beauty, the relentless passage of time, the complete lack of motive for the killings. Madeline, wisely, doesn't want any part of it. But her curiosity overcomes her (understandable) reluctance, and before too long she's poring over the old photographs of the crime scene in the newspaper morgue, interviewing witnesses and getting in over her head. In many ways, Madeline is the worst possible detective for this --- or any other --- case. She's nervous and depressive, with a knack for saying precisely the wrong thing to the wrong person. But her great gift is her undeniable talent for observation, which gets more acute when she's in a horrible environment or situation. Of course, it's a talent that rightly belongs to author Cornelia Read, and in her first novel she shows herself to be a sharp, caustic observer of crime scenes and purely social disasters. Read has an unerring eye for the false and the ridiculous, and both the barrooms of upstate New York and the drawing rooms of Long Island make for rich, ripe targets. She switches between them with aplomb, capable of describing both Low Rent entertainments (where a character named "Vomit Girl" makes a memorable appearance) as well as those of High Society (one key character enters a scene aboard his yacht). In between, Re

In 1988 coming from Long Island affluence, though the poorer side of the extended family, Madeline Dare surprises her family and friends when she marries railroad worker Dean Bauer and moves to his hometown of Syracuse, New York. Madeline struggles with her venture outside of civilization especially since her spouse is on the road, (make that the rails), in Canada a lot. While Dean is away from home, Madeline writes fluffy articles for the Syracuse Weekly newspaper. Madeline visits Dean's family farm. Her father-in-law shows her the dog tags of Lapthorne Townsend, her favorite cousin from the Oyster Bay, Long Island kin, that he discovered in a field in which two unidentified girls were found murdered with their throats cut in 1969. With a need to prove Lapthorne's innocence, Madeline investigates the cold case homicides. A FIELD OF DARKNESS is a terrific chick lit amateur sleuth starring a delightful in your face protagonist on a crusade to prove her relative could not have killed anyone two decades ago. The story line is filled with plausible twists as the heroine stumbles, rumbles, and tumbles her investigation. Madeline's asides on social issues add to the fun of a wonderful tale ably augmented by strong support characters who mange to bring the best and worst, most times both of magnificent Madeline. Harriet Klausner

F. Scott Fitzgerald meets Carl Hiaasen in this hi-larious debut novel from Cornelia Read. Parts of this book are laugh-out-loud funny, but the murder mystery zips along, too, propelled by the zaniest cast of characters this side of East Egg, as well as an assist from the Brothers Grimm. In the great tradition of the American aristocracy, Read's fictional Dare family gets nuttier as the money runs dry. I highly recommend this book.