REVIEWS+

Light from a Distant Star

by Mary McGarry Morris
Crown. Sept. 2011. c.336p. ISBN 9780307451866. $25. F
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Best-selling author Morris's latest work (after The Last Secret) is intended as a multilayered family narrative complicated by murder, but it fails to deliver. Suffering a financial crisis, the Pecks are forced to sell the family hardware store and are also having problems with their tenant, Dolly Bedelia, a pole dancer at the local strip club. The first half of the book sets up the family drama but is overstuffed with secondary characters and plots. Add to that the not very believable 13-year-old protagonist, Nellie Peck, who witnesses something she shouldn't. The tension in the second half hinges on Nellie's keeping a secret that is so implausible it's like watching a contemporary horror film in which none of the characters owns a cell phone. VERDICT This is a bloated and unbelievable work, lacking in both depth and suspense. It is a tribute to Morris's writing that despite these flaws the novel moves at a brisk pace, and most readers, even those who will be frustrated by it, will finish it. Recommended with reservations for Morris's fans. [See Prepub Alert, 3/14/11.]—Pamela Mann, St. Mary's Coll. of Maryland, St. Mary's City
Best-selling author Morris's latest work (after The Last Secret) is intended as a multilayered family narrative complicated by murder, but it fails to deliver. Suffering a financial crisis, the Pecks are forced to sell the family hardware store and are also having problems with their tenant, Dolly Bedelia, a pole dancer at the local strip club. The first half of the book sets up the family drama but is overstuffed with secondary characters and plots. Add to that the not very believable 13-year-old protagonist, Nellie Peck, who witnesses something she shouldn't. The tension in the second half hinges on Nellie's keeping a secret that is so implausible it's like watching a contemporary horror film in which none of the characters owns a cell phone.
VERDICT This is a bloated and unbelievable work, lacking in both depth and suspense. It is a tribute to Morris's writing that despite these flaws the novel moves at a brisk pace, and most readers, even those who will be frustrated by it, will finish it. Recommended with reservations for Morris's fans. [See Prepub Alert, 3/14/11.]—Pamela Mann, St. Mary's Coll. of Maryland, St. Mary's City
Reviewed by Pamela Mann , Aug 01, 2011
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