Review: Hex: A Ruby Murphy Mystery

On the one hand, HEX is not a conventional mystery novel by any stretch of the imagination. The writing style is quirky, the characters are nothing short of oddball, and there isn't even a dead body until the book's nearly halfway done. And yet, there is so much that is real here, from the relationships to the situations to some lines casually thrown away. It makes for a neat juxtaposition, and a hell of a book.

Ruby Murphy is thirty three years old and well, she hasn't done a whole hell of a lot with her life. Drifted through it, basically. Two years ago she returned to New York City and settled near Coney Island, where she works at the Coney Island Museum dispensing unbridled enthusiasm for its history. She takes piano lessons and revels in learning Bach and Beethoven's music, though she'd never played piano until she moved back. Her live in boyfriend moved out not too long ago. Suffice it to say that Ruby's at loose ends, until one morning when a stranger sitting next to her on a Manhattan-bound F train makes an unusual proposition: she wants to hire Ruby to do some surveillance work on her boyfriend. He might be cheating, but the would-be client's not sure.

Never mind that Ruby's never done any kind of investigative work in her life but after casually lying that she's a PI, one thing leads to another. Specifically, leading to Ruby spending her (incredibly) early mornings tending the horses at the Belmont race track, all the while keeping tabs on the boyfriend, Frank. Is he up to no good with the bitchy but talented blonde jockey? And who's killing off horses?

HEX is told from a variety of points of view, all headed with the character's name. So we get the story out of Ruby but also the perspective of her best friend Oliver, terminally ill with cancer, her neighbor Pietro, who just paid for his girlfriend to have the boob job from hell; and my own personal favorite supporting player, Ruby's piano teacher Mark, a brilliant young music student at Juilliard who has some interesting encounters with "wench like" women. Estep brilliantly captures the distinctive voices of all these characters, and illustrates how much they love, cherish, or simply don't understand Ruby in the slightest.

Estep also captures the flavor of the racetrack, the excitement of getting the horses prepped, the payoff when the underdog wins, and even the sights and smells of Belmont. I'm not a horseracing fan and don't know much about it, but reading HEX sure gave me a detailed and fascinating look, as told in an unusual way.

Ultimately what sets Estep's first foray into mystery fiction (she's had a very interesting career as a spoken word artist, MTV VJ, and previously published short stories, essays and a novel called DIARY OF AN EMOTIONAL IDIOT) is the neat turns of phrase, the wonderfully rendered supporting players and a heroine who is oddball enough to be different but not completely insane to be off-turning. HEX is the start of a series (the second, GARGANTUAN, will be out next year) and what a start it is. For something just a little bit different, I heartily recommend this novel.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Sarah - RAM

Book Review: Hex: A Ruby Murphy Mystery