The Dark Backward (New Fine First Edition)

Mary Reynold's new weekend country cottage becomes the site of a series of mysterious goings-on--including her husband's death--that lead a woman to some disturbing discoveries. A first novel.

British writer Hall's suspenseful first novel finds an American editor, Mary Reynolds, in love and in deep trouble in the English countryside. When Mary meets Geoffrey, an attractive English journalist who daintily avoids answering questions about his past, she tumbles quickly into an engagement. Soon the newlyweds buy a house in Norfolk, a little cottage where strange events occur?beginning on Mary's first day there without Geoffrey, when a crippled dog crawls to their door only to be shot by a wealthy neighbor. Days later, Mary finds her husband dead in the forest, with no reasonable explanation for his demise but with questions that lead only to more questions. She begins to follow clues, and the chase for the truth is on. Hall takes some risks by writing from the point of view of an American woman. Readers may find amusingly improbable the British slang that rolls off Mary's tongue: "gubbins"; "jinked"; "judder." The author's prose is chatty rather than precise, moreover, and at times readers will discover more than what's necessary about the lives of one character or another while impatiently waiting for the story to continue its tense stalk toward the terrible secret that surely must be lurking in the final pages.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Successful editor Mary Grapelli has moved to England, received a job promotion, married Geoffrey Reynolds, the man of her dreams, and bought a vine-covered country cottage. Everything should be wonderful, right? Wrong. Soon after the happy couple settles down, Geoffrey suffers a fatal heart attack. Grief-stricken, Mary begins sorting out his affairs and finds, to her horror, that her late husband was decidedly not the man she thought she'd married. His past is peppered with inconsistencies and oddities--from his fictitious upper-class background to his strange connection with a brilliant scientist. As Mary attempts to untangle the twisted puzzle, she soon finds that her own life is in danger. Hall's first novel is suspenseful, complex, and full of unusual twists, but the whopping, 408-page length plus the inconsistent pacing, the need for stronger editing, and his attempt to cram too many surprises into the plot put the novel into the "good but not great" category. Still, this is a promising debut that's likely to be popular despite its flaws. Emily Melton

Newcomer Hall has created a carefully wrapped first novel whose many layers take much undoing. Mary, an American editor living in London, marries the charming Geoffrey Reynolds, an economic journalist and author. Soon after they purchase a weekend cottage in the wilds of Norfolk, however, Geoffrey dies. As she attempts to settle his estate, Mary discovers how much Geoffrey hid from her: a job resignation, an ordinary upbringing, a woman in Norfolk. Hall builds suspense by employing intricate flashbacks, frequent interruptions in thought, and psychologically telling revelations. He also adds a hint of Bronte romanticism. Literate prose for the persistent.?Rex Klett, Mitchell Community Coll., LRC, Statesville, N.C.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.