The Shortest Day: Murder at the Revels

I loved it. I was sorry when it came to an end. I think this is my favorite Langton so far -- beautifully written and at times very wise. Like most Langton books, this isn't a conventional mystery -- you know very early on who the killer is -- the only suspense (and it's actually suspenseful) is who is going to be the next victim and how and when the killer will be caught. The setting is Cambridge, Massachusetts -- Harvard to be exact. The Revels to celebrate the Winter Solstice (very Christmassy, of course) are being rehearsed. There are a number of people involved in the revels, some of whom meet an unfortunate end. The police don't seem to notice a trend, but Homer Kelly's wife Mary does and she has some suspicions about who is responsible -- not that Homer listens to her. Other themes weave in and out -- a homeless activist is staging confrontations with Harvard University, insisting that they hand over some real estate to some homeless people. He's assembled a tent city on campus as part of the protest. Then there's an astronomist who is taking a photograph of the movement of the sun in the sky over the course of the year. THis is an intelligent novel, with some suspense, humor, and wisdom. You feel like you're right there and can see it all (I'm ready to fly to Boston to see the Revels for myself!) I also thought it was well read and I enjoyed listening to the tapes as I drove.

"The Shortest Day" uses an unusual (for a mystery, that is) plot device to great effect: you know whodunit early in the book and follow the good characters as they try to find out what you already know. You want to shout "Look there!" to them, and you cower when you see that the villain means to strike again. In this Homer Kelly mystery, the action is centered around the annual Christmas revels, which are to take place in Harvard's Memorial Hall, in which Mary, Homer's wife, is singing and into which Homer is himself eventually dragged kicking and screaming. As the book opens, the first of a series of murders has occurred...this one witnessed by Mary, herself. This book has just the right combination of humor, suspense, and flesh-and-blood characters - plus, of course, Ms. Langton's signature line drawings - to make it a real page-turner.

Set amidst a production of the Christmas Revels at Harvard, the mystery is solved by Homer Kelly, the big oaf, and his much more intuitive wife Mary. Intertwined with the richness of the Revels is the encampment of homeless people on Harvard's campus, themes of love and jealousy, and the author's beautiful line drawings of Cambridge. One of Langton's best.