GONE ON SUNDAY

The author sent me a copy of her novel to read and review:

As I was nearing the end of this twofold mystery, a murder archetype came to my mind...Who killed Cock Robin, twice? Once in 1932 and again 1972. Tower Lowe cleverly melded two related murders forty years apart by alternating the chapters by the year of the crimes. Not only are the murders related, but so are most of the characters. The minor flaws (that) I detected in Tower’s novel were the amount of characters (too many) and a prose that was not as colorful as it could have been...where was the southern drawl? I also thought that the vernacular spoken in 1932 would be a little less modern than the language spoken in 1972. But somehow the writer made it work. The first hundred pages or so were a little confusing trying to remember all the character’s names. Once that was accomplished, I was able to track what was happening easily. This novel has more twists than Carter has Liver Pills. I defy any reader to solve both of these mysteries (I didn’t guess right on either murder). Writing alternating chapters, while also reminiscing within them, is a hard task for any author and somewhat confusing for the reader, but it was manipulated smoothly by the writer. Tower Lowe is a proficient storyteller...just needs to do a better job with her composition.

The novel starts out with twenty three year old Cotton Lee Penn investigating the murder of her cousin, Little Mary. Cotton was working for a local attorney, Max Mayfair, who was hired by Little Mary’s fiance, Walker Kane. Walker was afraid of being arrested because Little Mary was beaten to death and he was known to have beaten her before. Did he do it? Apparently, Little Mary was working on a memorial scrapbook to honor her mother who died two years ago. She was also trying to clear up the murder of her grandmother, Bead Baker, who was also beaten to death forty years prior. Cotton is a pretty lady, but limps around with a gimpy leg from a earlier bout of polio. The novel has a touch of southern discriminations of 1932 and 1972 Virginia. Both blacks (Wilson in 1932 and Muddy in 1972) faced unjust suspicion because of their color. Are they murderers? What about the mean Reverend Samuel “Sharp” Dorn? He hated Bead Baker because she was spending too much time with his wife Verdie (teaching Verdie how to cook and be independent). Rev. Dorn was also known to smack his wife around. Bead was rumored to be a witch or at least someone with a great sixth sense. Did he beat Bead Baker to death? Many more suspects emerge with good reasons to murder Bead...too many to mention in this review. I couldn’t figure out who did it.

 

Little Mary was also known as a woman with great intuition in 1972 Virginia. Many people  worried that their secrets would be revealed by Little Mary. This novel had similarities to Grace Metalious’ Peyton Place (1956) at times. Did the local school teacher, Sally Hampton, who had a secret affair, kill Little Mary? Why did Cotton’s sister, Sydney, who was married to a state senator, want Cotton off the investigation? Did she kill Little Mary? On page 51, she says to Cotton, “Little Mary knew secrets about me, and I don’t want them exposed.” The Reverend Ron Dorn (yes, the son of the 1932 Rev. Dorn) hated Little Mary...why? Cotton Lee’s college black friend, Muddy, tells Cotton that his grandmother, Grace (Bead’s maid), had three pages that she tore out of Bead Baker’s cookbook the day she was murdered. Did Bead write clues on those pages before she died? Can Cotton put the mysterious writings together? What does, One more hour at most. Remember Sugar. Sugar is sweeter than needed. Sharp, bitter-Sugar does not mask it. Sugar turns sour and rises-leaving, mean? There are two more cookbook pages with similar notes that are puzzling, but one page is missing. The pages have dried blood on them. Can Cotton Lee find out who murdered Bead Baker in 1932 and Little Mary in 1972? I’ve only mentioned a fraction of the intrigue still to come in this novel...there are no humdrum chapters.

I thought Tower Lowe’s novel could have been less perplexing if she would have trimmed down the many characters to a reasonable amount, but then I thought, maybe it would have been too easy to figure out who the murderer or murderers were... being they occured forty years apart. Whatever...she did a good job fooling me. If you think you could solve these murders, buy your own copy of Tower Lowe’s whodunit.  

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

Comment: I know that I am being picayune when I constantly complain about the vernacular of a novel. But the novel comes alive when you use the proper slang, punctuation or accent of a particular time. Just read Mark twain, for example, and you will get what I’m saying. Here’s a quote from Twain’s 1884 novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (see my review of 12/17/2012):

“Yes-en I’s rich now, come to look at it. I owns mysef, en I’s worth eight hund’d dollars. I wisht I had de money, I wouldn’ want no.”

How about a quote from Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1883 novel, Treasure Island (see my review of 8/23/2016):

“Fifteen men on the Dead Man’s Chest yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! Drink and the devil had done for the rest yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!”

Okay, you want an example of a more modern novel? How about Erskine Caldwell’s 1933 novel, God's Little Acre:

“Mr. Ty Ty, you oughta’ be out raisin’ cotton. You’re a good farmer-that is, you USED to be. Why, Mr. Ty Ty, you can raise more cotton on this land in one season than you can find gold in a whole lifetime. It’s a waste of everything, Mr Ty Ty, diggin’ them holes all over the place.”

Do you see why these writers are legendary?