Mysteries of Winterthurn

The atmosphere of Mysteries of Winterthurn is that of twilight . Mystery and enigma seem to be the order of the day in the novel. Three murders are committed and Xavier the traditional detective starts the journey of identifying the perpetrators. While Xavier is shown throughout trying to resolve the mysteries and identify the killers, Oates is engaging the readers throughout the incidents and events in probing the reasons for the violence which claimed the lives of an innocent child in the first murder case, poor factory girls in the second case and a clergyman in the third. The typically Gothic question "who is the culprit?'' turns into the more difficult question `Why'. And in answering the question "why" the entire society is identified as the real culprit through its biased beliefs which see women, children and the poor as creatures of no human or social consequence.

Yep, I read her saying just that. The concluding book in the Gothic Trilogy, is really three novellas with the same main character, a young man whom we see rise from a schoolboy interested in criminology, to become the foremost detective of his time, the late 1800's. The first story is set in the dreary, "Sleepy Hollow-like" hamlet of Winterthurn, in the bog country of upstate New York. In the man's family mansion, in a room locked from the inside, his cousin has been found near death and her infant son dead, covered with small bite marks. People begin to say the rather creepy Baroque "demon-cherubs" lining the walls as decoration came alive and attacked the couple. Did they? Can logic overcome superstition? Just what IS the answer? Hint: it's gruesome stuff. The next story is about the serial killing of several local factory girls. A Jewish accountant is blamed and the detective seeks to show it is really the flamboyant oldest son of a prominent local family who is doing it. It is a race against time since the locals want to lynch the Jewish man, held under light guard at the town jail. The last story, set half a lifetime after the opening novella, features one of the beautiful female cousins in the first tale, who is found tied to a chair while her husband, an Episcopalian rector, is lying in front of her beaten to death on the rectory floor, with small paper hearts scattered all over his body. Kinda grim, eh? For lovers of authentic gothic fiction--not its pale modern descendant--the time spent reading Mysteries of Winterthurn will be time cherished. I recommend it without reservations. But fair warning, it is not for the faint of heart, or those whose attention spans cannot handle the demands of expertly measured prose.

Fascinating book, when one considers that Oates is writing in the early 1980s in a retrospective style and language. She completely hits the Victorian mark. Don't expect "easy reading"-- this one takes time and committment, but it's worth it. Elements of horror, romance, and historical interest are blended in a fairly balanced manner. The first tale in this 'trilogy' of sorts gets bogged down a bit with all of the Kilgarvan family trivia, but it is essential to the rest of the tales. Work through it. Xavier Kilgarvan is truly one of the most unique and engaging (and pitiful) characters of all the detective/mystery genre. The most impressive aspect of this novel is that Oates leaves mysteries as mysteries. Meaning, she does not rend the veil of mystery in some hackneyed (though at times clever) manner, like so many writers in this genre (Doyle). The supernaturally strange events in Winterthurn remain shrouded (and as you will see, justifiably so) even after extensive examination and "ratiocination" (Oates' word). In the end, the Truth (if there be such a thing) is left for us to speculate. The importance (and the fun) lies in the journey, not in an unattainable destination!