Cyanide Wells - Hardcover

Muller, Marcia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0892967811 ISBN 13: 9780892967810

Publisher: Mysterious Press, 2003

Synopsis

When Matthew Lindstrom's wifeGwen disappeared, his comfortable life was destroyed by suspicion and innuendo. But 14 years later, Matthew receives an anonymous phone call saying Gwen is alive-and well aware of what her disappearance has done to him. Now, Matthew is on his way to Soledad County in Northern California in search of vindication. Once he arrives, he is shocked to discover Gwen has a new name, Ardis Coleman, and is living with her lesbian lover, Carly, and their daughter,Natalie. Deciding to confront his ex-wife, Matt shows up at her home only to find a bloodstained hallway-and no sign of Ardis or Natalie. Together Carly and Matt form an unlikely alliance in their search for the missing pair. But as they dig into Ardis' life, they discover a twisted plan-one that leads to a final confrontation that may prove fatal to all of them.

About this title

About the Author

Marcia Muller lives in Northern California.

Reviews

Anthony-winner Muller delivers another stand-alone (after 2001's Point Deception) set in northern California's fictional Soledad County that fails to measure up to her bestselling Sharon McCone series (Dead Midnight, etc.). After being unjustly suspected of murdering his missing ex-wife, Gwen, Matthew Lindstrom moved from Minnesota, where he taught college photography, to British Columbia, where he operates an excursion boat. When 14 years later an anonymous phone caller tells him Gwen is living in Cyanide Wells, Calif., as Ardis Coleman, Matt goes there to find her and clear his name. Hired by the local newspaper, which has won a Pulitzer for a series on the murder of a gay couple penned by the erratic Ardis, Matt discovers that his ex-wife is in a lesbian relationship with hot-headed newspaper editor Carly McGuire, with whom she shares a mixed-race daughter. When Ardis and the child vanish, Matt and Carly join forces to track them down. While Muller vividly paints the rugged northern California coast with its decaying towns and abandoned logging and mining areas now giving way to retirement communities, she leaves out her usual complicated characters and plot twists. Matt too easily gets the newspaper job, elicits confidences and uncovers secrets. The villains are pretty obvious, as is the secret behind the gay murders. Muller fans may prefer to wait for another McCone novel.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A stand-alone story from the author of the Sharon McCone series. Matt Lindstrom leaves the life he has rebuilt in British Columbia to search for his ex-wife, Gwen. After she vanished from their California home, innuendo that he had murdered her ruined him, forcing his relocation. He discovers that she's in a Soledad County town called Cyanide Wells, living with a lesbian lover and an adopted child. When he goes there--For revenge? for solace?--he discovers she has taken off again, this time with the child. He and Carly McGuire, publisher of the county newspaper and Gwen's partner, perform an uneasy dance as they try to bring her back. Gwen has written a Pulitzer Prize-winning story about the local murder of a gay couple, and in tracing the clues from it, from a passel of local secrets, and from Gwen's complicated emotional life, Matt and Carly uncover the depths of Gwen's duplicity to both of them. The relationship between these two prickly characters, male and female, straight and gay, is the most intriguing aspect of this somewhat overplotted but entertaining whodunit. There's also a genuinely cool use of the Web site, Librarians Index to the Internet (http://lii.org). GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Mysterious Press
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0892967811
• ISBN 13: 9780892967810
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304