Discovering the Body
A Novel
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1.0 • 1 Rating
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
Discovering the Body is a gripping novel filled with psychological suspense, sensitivity, and emotional complexity. With this stunning debut, Mary Howard has crafted an electrifying and hauntingly evocative novel of truth and perception, of the ties we tell others-and the lies we tell ourselves.
Two years ago Linda Garbo left her graphic design job in Minneapolis to open a printmaking studio in a small town in Iowa with the encouragement of Luci Cole, a weaver and an old friend from art school. Arriving in Linden Grove for good, Linda agrees to stay with Luci and her boyfriend, Charlie, in their old farmhouse outside of town until the renovations to her new studio space are completed. But the following afternoon as she is driving down the long winding road toward Luci's house, Linda sees Luci's neighbor, Peter Garvey, walking out the front door-and when Linda enters the house a few minutes later, she discovers her friend's lifeless body on the kitchen floor.
Now, two years later, Peter Garvey has been convicted of Luci's murder. Linda is married to Charlie and living in the very house where Luci died. And she is convinced someone is following her. As she begins to confront her fears-approaching the man she believes is spying on her, visiting Peter Garvey in prison-she finally faces the cause for her frequent panic attacks: she was too traumatized by her discovery of Luci's body to be a reliable witness. And if she's identified the wrong man, the killer may still be close by, ready to react if she admits she might have made a mistake. Compelled to unravel the mystery surrounding Luci's final days, Linda finds that Luci was a master at weaving her true colors into a complex tapestry, preferring involvements that required secrecy.
A beautifully crafted tour de force of significant depth, passion, and power, Discovering the Body is a completely beguiling meditation on perception, loss, memory, and redemption whose conclusion proves to be as significantly haunting as it is satisfying.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Don't expect the unexpected from this soap operatic suspense novel about a smalltown Iowa murder witness who marries the victim's bereaved lover. From the first page, when a puddle of spilled tomato juice reminds Linda Garbo of the day she discovered Luci Cole's slashed body, heavy foreshadowing and familiar themes choke this sultry drama. When Linda, a printmaker and graphic designer, first moves to Linden Grove, she stays with her old art school friend Luci and Luci's lover, beekeeper Charlie Carpenter. Luci's brutal murder soon after throws Linda and Charlie together, and a year later they marry. Two years after the trial, in which their neighbor Peter Garvey was convicted, Linda and Charlie are struggling to forget the horrible crime (difficult since they live in the house where the murder occurred). John Bender, a local reporter who believes in Garvey's innocence, persuades Linda to meet Garvey. The prisoner, who has previously admitted that he was Luci's spurned lover, tells Linda that Luci kept a secret journal. Although Charlie assures Linda that no diary exists, Linda finds her friend's writings in the margins of an art book. They detail Luci's self-destructive flirtations, including one with a religious counselor aroused by her confessions. Linda also uncovers the secrets of a troubled teenager, local drug traffickers, a blackmailer and, of course, her own husband. First-time novelist Howard nicely captures the essence of rural Iowa, the work of beekeeping and the art of etching. Dialogue between Linda and the reporter has an understated Midwestern charm. Unfortunately, Howard's evident determination to create a bestseller by cramming her novel full of daytime television concerns--deep sexual psychology, childhood trauma, male villains and triumphant heroines--proves as fatal and obvious as Luci's misguided affairs. Regional author tour.
