Book Review: Cape Perdido

Reviewed By: Webspinner - RAM

Cape Perdido     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Marcia Muller
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Time Warner Books; July 2005; 305 pp

Small, sleepy Cape Perdido was once a thriving lumber town. The mill has been closed and people have drifted away, but the town has hung on by becoming a getaway for tourists and outdoor recreationists. A water-harvesting company could ruin all they have achieved by buying the deserted mill and ruining the local ecology when they 'bag' water for other destinations.

Into this mix arrive several outside specialists, geared up to help the locals keep the 'waterbaggers' from stealing the water and ruining the local environment. In what they see as a fight to save the town, locals and specialists hold a series of meetings to try to garner support for their views and try to find a way to get the State to deny the 'waterbaggers' the necessary permits to operate.

A 30-year-old mystery returns to haunt several of the townspeople and the past becomes part of the present once again.

Cape Perdido is located in Marcia Muller's fictional Soledad County on the Northern California Coast, and so has a very loose link to those previous books through Inspector Rhoda Swift of the SCSD. Cape Perdido is a dark reflection of small towns with Muller's own lighthouse beam to cut through the fog of the mystery that takes time to unfold, but Cape Perdido has several twists and turns that will keep you involved in the story of Jessie Domingo, Joseph Openshaw, Stephanie Pace, and Timothy McNear, the mill owner. The ending is slightly contrived, but does not detract from another good story told by Marcia Muller.

Webspinner - RAM

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

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