Afterward - Hardcover

Rae, Catherine M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312068948 ISBN 13: 9780312068943

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1992

Synopsis

Left to care for her siblings, along with older sister Angela, when the rest of their family is killed in a 1904 excursion boat fire, Maud Evans questions Angela's decision to marry a wealthy older man

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Reviews

YA-- In 1904, when a fire broke out on the excursion boat, the General Slocum , 1,024 passengers were lost. What might have happened to one of the surviving families is chronicled in this tale of relationships and murder. Maud Evans survives her mother and three brothers, and now she and the rest of the family (Angie, youngsters Kitty and Megan, and Papa) must pick up the pieces of their lives. In his grief, Papa brings them to the brink of poverty and makes life so unbearable that Angie accidentally kills him. She is thereupon determined to make their way better, marrying a wealthy man only to find that she has traded one tyrant for another. She runs away, and Maud becomes the family's strength as they try to find Angie and are involved in a second murder. The story takes place in turn-of-the-century New York, and Rae deftly brings that era to life in her attention to detail. She smoothly develops several levels of Maud's concerns: her care for Kitty and Megan; her worry about Angie; her need to make a living in a man's world; her hope for romance. The plot moves quickly through 15 years, all blended with twists of mystery and suspense.
-Carol Fox, El Dorado High School, KS
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Though related in understated prose, this novel of romantic suspense is marred by an excess of melodramatic events. Angie and Maud Evans are teenagers in 1904 when their mother and three brothers are among the hundreds who drown in the sinking of the General Slocum. When their father, disabled by grief and alcohol, dies soon after, under questionable circumstances, the girls are left to cope with their two infant sisters and a dwindling inheritance. Beautiful and calculating Angie opts for a quick marriage to wealthy Derek Blauvelt, who agrees to support Maud and their two siblings. But Angie is quickly disenchanted with her demanding husband, and after a rash attempt to run off, she is virtually held prisoner on the Blauvelt summer estate. Even so, she manages to disappear, and a string of bizarre occurrences (a break-in at the estate; shadowy visitors at Maud's New York residence) turn the deeply concerned Maud and Derek into unlikely allies. A sinister housekeeper keeps the plot churning. Rae ( Sarah Cobb ) writes in a calm, measured tone that contrasts with the plot's lurid developments, and the atmosphere of Old New York is nicely sketched. Yet insufficiently developed characters, a degree of predictability and a mechanical wrap-up of all loose ends sap the book of vitality.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Rae's cozy tales of buried scandals and genteel survival tactics, set in the (usually comfortably well-off) Manhattan of several decades ago (Sarah Cobb, 1990; Julia's Story, 1989, etc.), are becoming tighter, livelier, and, in short, better and better. This story involving the disappearance of a lovely woman, two murders, and a bang-up surprise ending--quietly, warmly narrated-- is one of the author's best. In 1904, narrator Maud Evans's adored mother and brothers died in an excursion-boat explosion, leaving behind Maud, her beautiful, volatile sister Angie, two tiny other sisters, and Papa--who, wild with grief and deep into drink, had terrible spells of rage. (Later, Maud chose not to think that his death from a fall was caused by Angie.) With poverty threatening, Angie sets out to marry a rich man--and succeeds. Her husband is wealthy Derek Blauvelt, who pays for Maud's Manhattan household of tots and maid. But Angie will abruptly leave Derek and simply disappear. Derek, surprisingly, becomes a doting avuncular friend, and the little sisters visit his country estate--by this time free, fortunately, of Derek's terrifying housekeeper, a black-clad Mrs. Danvers sort. Meanwhile, although there are disquieting unseen invasions of the Manhattan house, Maud is happy in a bookstore job and finds love. Angie remains absent--until there's a note to Maud that summons her to a night of terror. Before the final revelations, there'll be two grisly murders and Angie's reappearance. A congenial narration, pleasant ambiance, and a satisfying mystery. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312068948
• ISBN 13: 9780312068943
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 182