by Ellen Hart
Reviewed by Terri Schlichenmeyer
ONLY ON THE WEB
Your accountant is so proud of you. Like the good saver you are, you’ve tried to invest a little money here or there. A few acres of land, maybe, or a piece of equipment that will make money for you somehow. A good education for you or the kids. Perhaps you’ve even stuck a buck into stocks or bonds for the future.
If Chester “Chess” Garrity had his way, you’d invest in antiquities. He’s got valuable loot on his hands and, in the new book The Cruel Ever After by Ellen Hart, he needs to get rid of it, pronto.
But first, he needed to stop drinking. That was obvious to Chess as he disentangled himself from Melvin Dial’s back porch on a sunny Minnesota morning. Though his head was pounding, the night of poker and booze would be worth every minute if Dial bought the ancient bull statue that Chess had to sell.
But that would never happen. Making his way through the house, Chess found himself staring at the corpse of Melvin Dial.
Stunned and panicky, Chess looked up his old friend Jane Lawless. He needed someplace to think, and Jane was goodhearted and discreet.
Years ago, they were married briefly, just long enough for Chess to get his inheritance. It was a union meant only for money, so when Chess pocketed the cash, he gave Jane a portion, and they split amiably. Jane set herself up with a restaurant in downtown St. Paul, and since it wasn’t exactly a love match—she was gay and she’d assumed Chess was, too—she decided to keep the whole thing secret.
But Chess wasn’t gay; in fact, he was having an affair with a married woman.
He and Irena Nelson had met in Istanbul and had a quick, urgent fling. Chess professed love, and Irena agreed to help him sell the antiquities he had in his possession, all stolen from the Baghdad Museum. Irena’s mother owned Morgana Beck Gallery of Antiquities. Getting rid of ancient Iraqi pieces wouldn’t be difficult.
But Chess never counted on anybody getting killed, and Irena was acting weird. So when she “lost” the golden bull statue, and three guys started stalking Jane, Chess knew it was time to take the ancient bull by the horns.
When a book starts out with a lengthy cast of characters, pay attention: in The Cruel Ever After, you’re going to need that list.
Author Ellen Hart packs a good number of people in this Jane Lawless mystery, which could be discombobulating if some of them didn’t die off (it is a mystery, right?). Though there are times when overpopulation might tempt you to quit this book, the good news is that the remaining characters move this story along nicely through a few decent surprises to a satisfying ending. Just keep the cast list handy, that’s all.
If you’ve been saving your whodunit hunger for just the right book, try this one. Reading The Cruel Ever After is a decent investment of your time.
The Cruel Ever After
by Ellen Hart
2010, Minotaur Books (us.macmillan.com/minotaur.aspx)
320 pages, $24.99/$29.99 Canada
Terri Schlichenmeyer has been reading since she was three years old, and she lives on a hill in Wisconsin with two dogs and 11,000 books.
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