Rima is recovering from the loss of her family: her mother died when Rima was little, her brother died in a car accident not that long ago and her father died recently. When her godmother invites her out to California, Rima gladly accepts, eager to get away from her tragic home.
Rima's godmother, Addison Early, is a famous and prolific mystery writer who hasn't published a new Maxwell Lane (her fictional detective) in about three years. Fans and friends are worried that she has run out of ideas or has writer's block. Whatever the problem is, Addison is not talking about it.
Addison is a bit of an odd duck. She has no relatives and has never been married. She lives in a beautiful seaside home called "Wit's End." Her home is filled with miniature tableaus depicting the scene of the crime of almost every one of her mystery novels. She has two wiener dogs and two young people who come every morning to walk the wiener dogs. She is also a person who keeps her own counsel.
Rima comes to Wit's End hoping to find an answer to something that has puzzled her for a long time. She wants to know just exactly what Addison's relationship to Rima's dead father was. Rima suspects they were lovers, which would explain the animosity her parents seemed to hold toward the woman they choose to be Rima's godmother. So Rima set out to solve this mystery and to try to develop some kind of relationship to this woman who is really just a stranger to her.
I came to this novel with two expectations. First, since it was written by the author of The Jane Austen Book Club, which was a highly successful novel that was made into a movie, its author could probably be relied upon to tell a good story. Second, it was in the mystery section, so I assumed it was a mystery novel. I disappointed on both accounts.
I found this novel hard to follow. So much that occurs seemed to me to be just hinted at, creating bogus suspense, suspense that could have been easily resolved if Rima would have simply asked Addison, "Hey, what was the deal with you and my father?" Or when Rima saw the box in the attic with her dad's name on it, why didn't she just ask if she could look in it? Why all the pussyfooting around this woman Addison? It's not like Rima was stuck in Wit's End, dependent upon the largess of her godmother.
Another problem I had was, since I thought this was a mystery novel, I kept waiting for someone to be killed. Yes, there is a murder, but it happened decades ago and the murderer is never brought to justice or the murder even really solved, although what happened is pretty much guessed towards the end of the book.
This book was kind of like one of those TV soap operas where all the misunderstandings and hurt feelings could be cleared up with a little openness and honesty. I never did understand why Rima was so careful of Addison's feelings. I just didn't understand these characters. I especially didn't understand why Addison was so coy about her background. So what if her family was screwed up? Whose family isn't? To me this whole novel was mountains out of mole hills.
For another review see The Washington Post.
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