Book Review: Calpurnia

Reviewed By: Woodstock - RAM

Calpurnia     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Anne Scott
Class/Genre:   Fiction   Mystery

A very nice debut novel! The publisher hasn't billed this one as suspense fiction, but I found it quite mysterious in a very satisfying manner.

The title refers to a large Italianate mansion on Philadelphia's main line - the widowed owner recently died after a long battle with breast cancer, and an antiques dealer who specializes in valuing estates at an amount pleasing to the heirs has been hired.

Something valuable is missing in the woman's effects. A surviving niece knows that it's valuable, but doesn't share this knowledge with anyone else. What's missing, exactly? Only the niece knows, the reader is still wondering. And perhaps the woman did not die a natural death? A long time neighbor is suspicious, but about what exactly? Was it suicide? Assisted suicide? Murder? Or just the painful spread of a ghastly disease?

There are enough characters from old fashioned "drawing room" mysteries to keep this reader thoroughly engrossed - a substance abusing son, an estranged brother, a former lover whose motives may have more to do with valuable art than with romance, the niece, the neighbor, a globe trotting antiques broker, and the dealer who is managing the entire valuation.

I enjoyed the experience of reading a "non genre" book and finding myself up to my eyeballs in an engrossing mystery!

Woodstock - RAM

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