Overview

A dark, haunting, multi-layered story of detection and suspense from the acclaimed author of Koko, The Talisman and Mr X. First published in 1990 and now reissued in a new cover style. On the tiny Caribbean island of Mill Walk, the rich play tennis, polo and golf, trying to ignore the distasteful realities of life. So when Tom Pasmore, the grandson of a powerful establishment figure, develops a passion for detective work – particularly murder cases – his reputation undergoes a subtle darkening. One murder in particular fascinates Tom – the 1925 killing of Jeanine Thielman at Eagle Lake, a resort patronized only by the cream of the island’s upper crust community. But when he starts investigating the case, Tom arouses much more than mere disapproval. On the edge of a web of corruption, deceit and violence, he is in danger of uncovering the darkest secrets of the people who own and run Mill Walk.

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9780586209585

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Reviews

'Superb! immensely readable, genuinely intriguing.' Washington Post 'Tour-de-force whodunnit from a writer of majestic talent. Straub has made the difficult transition from horror to mainstream dark fiction with an effortless ease of which most other writers can barely dream.' Northern Echo 'A satisfyingly complex thriller.' Time Out

After failing in Floating Dragon and Shadowland to match the consummate horrors of Ghost Story, Straub switched genres to punch out a bright mess of a thriller in 1987's Koko. Here's another switch - and another honorable semifailure - as he attempts to recapitulate the history of the mystery novel via the elegant, languid, drawn-out story of a boy and his encounter with a Great Detective and a Great Crime. Tom Pasmore, scion of one of the richest families on the Caribbean island of Mill Walk, is the boy who - in a nightmare-vivid opening that proves the novel's zenith - is hit by a car and has a profound near-death experience. Hospitalized, Tom is visited by a neighbor who gives him books by Conan Doyle and Poe - and who thus steers Tom into a teen-long obsession with detection. Seven years later, amateur p.i. Tom, looking into a local killing, re-meets that neighbor: he's Lamont von Heilitz, The Shadow, once a world-famous detective, now a recluse, a dandy who has worked as much by intuition as by deduction. Taking him under his wing, Lamont trains Tom, then instructs him to dig into possible crime and corruption - particularly, an ancient murder - within Mill Walk's tangled social circles while summering at an exclusive resort habituated by the rich of Mill Walk. There, Tom steals away the beautiful girlfriend of the scion of the all-powerful Redwing family; alienates that family (much Straubian tracing of social mores here) by that act and by his nosing around; and is shot at, then nearly killed in an arson. Who's the culprit? Someone close to Tom - confronted, after a twist of fate and a tragic death that force Tom into instant maturity, in a bloody climax set in the Boschean slums of Mill Walk. An ambitious homage, sluggishly engaging but no classic: the complex intrigue suffocates suspense and emotional power, and Lamont's no Holmes - or even Miss Marple. (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

Peter Straub was born in Milwaukee, and is the author of fourteen novels, including Ghost Story and The Talisman (with Stephen King). He has won two British Fantasy Awards, two Bram Stoker Awards, the International Horror Guild Award and two World Fantasy Awards, and was elected Grand Master at the 1998 World Horror Convention. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages. He has lived in Ireland and England, and now lives in New York City.

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