Product Description

Artfully imagined, intricately detailed, eerily poignant: these are the outstanding features of Carol Goodman’s literary thrillers. She is part novelist, part craftsman—and The Drowning Tree is her newest masterpiece.

Juno McKay intended to avoid the nearby campus of her alma mater during her fifteenth reunion weekend, but she just can’t turn down the chance to see her longtime friend, Christine Webb, speak at the Penrose College library. Though Juno cringes at the inevitable talk of the pregnancy that kept her from graduating, and of her husband, Neil Buchwald, who ended up in a mental hospital only two years after their wedding, Juno endures the gossip for her friend’s sake. Christine’s lecture sends shockwaves through the rapt crowd when she reveals little-known details about the lives of two sisters, Eugenie and Clare—members of the powerful and influential family whose name the college bears. Christine’s revelation throws shadows of betrayal, lust, and insanity onto the family’s distinguished facade.

But after the lecture, Christine seems distant, uneasy, and sad. The next day, she disappears. Juno immediately suspects a connection to her friend’s shocking speech. Although painfully reminded of her own experience with Neil’s mental illness, Juno nevertheless peels away the layers of secrets and madness that surround the Penrose dynasty. She fears that Christine discovered something damning about them, perhaps even something worth killing for. And Juno is determined to find it—for herself, for her friend, and for her long-lost husband.


From the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #97456 in Books
• Published on: 2004-12-28
• Released on: 2004-12-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Goodman (The Lake of Dead Languages) delivers another captivating literary mystery of secrets old and new. After 15 years, Juno McKay returns to Penrose College, her alma mater, to hear her friend Christine give a lecture on a beautiful stained-glass window designed by the college's founder and featuring, it was assumed, his wife, Eugenie Penrose. But Christine's research has led her to other conclusions, and her lecture raises many carefully groomed eyebrows. Juno wonders if her always controversial friend has gone too far, and later, she's puzzled by Christine's odd questions and behavior, particularly regarding Juno's ex-husband, Neil, confined to a mental institution called Briarwood these last 14 years. Christine departs, leaving many unanswered questions, and days later, Juno discovers her body in the Hudson River near the college. With elegant precision, Goodman envelops readers in Juno's life, as well as in the lives of her daughter, Bea, and Eugenie and her institutionalized, lovelorn sister, Clare. As Juno finds herself plunged into the middle of a murder investigation, she begins to retrace the path of Christine's research, uncovering tangled connections among the prestigious college, the Briarwood mental facility and her own family history. This is an artful thriller, with rich, vivid descriptions of works of art, Hudson River Valley scenery and the knotty inner terrain of its characters' hearts.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Juno McKay is thrilled when her best friend Christine returns to their upstate New York college, Penrose, to give a lecture about the stained-glass window Juno will be restoring. Christine shocks her audience when she theorizes that Augustus Penrose, the college's founder, depicted his sister-in-law, Clare, not his wife, Eugenie, in the window. After the lecture, Juno finds Christine somewhat troubled and worries about her after she boards her train home. A week later, Juno and her 15-year-old daughter, Bea, kayak on the Hudson River to the Penrose estate, Astolat, where they discover a body: Christine. Heartbroken by her friend's death, which appears to be a suicide, Juno tries to find out what could have driven her over the edge. The search leads Juno in unexpected directions, one of which involves her handsome ex-husband, Neil, who has been a patient in the local asylum for 14 years, ever since he tried to drown himself, Juno, and Bea. Goodman is spot-on at developing a creepy, gothic atmosphere and delivering a compelling, tightly plotted mystery. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
“Goodman’s early promise comes to full flower in this work . . . A novel full of surprises.”
–The Denver Post

“[A] captivating literary mystery of secrets old and new.”
–Publishers Weekly


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Customer Reviews

Literary mystery entertains and inspires
Some mystery writers just like to throw out the characters and weave them into a plot without frills. But Carol Goodman takes the mystery up a level or two and carves an entertaining but thought-provoking book in the process.

Ms. Goodman likes mythology and classic literature and art. She moves the plot along by using parallels from mythological tales such as Baucis and Philemon, two ancient lovers turned into a tree by Zeus who granted the couple's wish that they may die together and be guardians of Zeus's temple. This sounds heavy-handed, but it isn't. Such myths work well within the storyline.

The author builds her primary mystery around a painting that served as the model for an artsy stained-glass window at Penrose College. The narrator Juno McKay attended Penrose, but didn't graduate because she got pregnant and married her boyfriend Neil. Juno's story opens with a brief dream sequence, then segues into reality as she rushes to hear her best friend Christine give a lecture about the artist and other personalities associated with the painting/window.

There's a lot of action in the book, considering it's what I'd call a literary mystery. Juno's husband Neil is mentally ill, and has been in a long-term care facility since he tried to drown Juno and their daughter Beatrice years ago. Juno has several romantic interests, and the reader wonders who will triumph in the end, although one of the men's names is a dead giveaway.

Penrose college is one of those tony schools up North with hefty tuition and lofty expectations as well as a delicious scandal that unfolds. Several mysteries run concurrently, but are neatly wrapped up in the end.

Ms. Goodman manages to take on a bit of literary and artistic theory without boring the reader. One tool she uses to do this is an antique diary written by the alleged subject of the painting, Eugenie Penrose, who writes, "Think of how a mood is changed by our surroundings-how more harmonious is the life lived among beautiful things."

This mystery has the classic red herring, a well-constructed story-line, and a budding romance in addition to modern and historical love triangles. A primary theme in the book is water as both a giver and taker of life. The book is written by a thinker, by an author who obviously loves words, and is well-read in the classics important to Western civilization.

I'd recommend this book to any reader, because it will work for readers on different levels. Those who like to think about philosophy and art will appreciate it, as will those who simply want to be entertained. It's a breath of fresh air in the popular mystery field, and it's a great read to boot.

A thriller for the literate
I am so glad to have discovered this author! She's created a multi-faceted, intriguing story which, although not entirely plausible, is a witty and smart read, perfect for the summer. The plot weaves together art history, unrequited love and relationships, mythology, a generations-old mystery, and a modern-day murder, using as a backdrop the Hudson Valley and incorporating everything from Dante and stained glass technique to kayaking.

These seemingly disparate elements come together seamlessly, and I was repeatedly struck while reading this book how knowledgeable the author is. Her grasp of languages, history, and psychology are impressive, and I have to admit, I felt a bit smarter after reading this book.

Which is not to say that it is perfect. There are small holes in the storyline, but they're not obvious, and they don't take away from the intriguing and engaging tone of the characters and the situations in which they find themselves. The ending was a bit too contrived, however the author could have taken the plot twists in several different directions, and she chose an interesting resolution to the problems the protagonist faces.

Ultimately I gave this book 5 stars because I was so pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. If you like thrillers, particularly those written by someone who's at least as smart as you are (if not more), you can hardly do better.

No Surprises--Just Good Reading
Having met Ms. Goodman some years ago when she published her first novel (I worked with her brother), I am always hoping she will really break out with a huge success. Though this novel continues her pattern of subtly eerie thrillers, I don't know if this novel stands out enough to do it for her in this world of Dan Brown-type success. It's unfortunate because she is a strong writer.

In this novel, Ms. Goodman's protagonist is Juno McKay, a college drop-out due to pregnancy who has spent the past 15 years bringing up her daughter alone after her husband goes mad, tries to kill them and ends up in an insane asylum. Following in her father's footsteps, she has become a restorer of stained glass. While restoring a window for her should-have-been alma mater, her best friend dies and she becomes swept up in the investigation of the death.

There are plenty of twist and turns in the story though the real joy of her stories are not surprises (they aren't really that surprising) but the prose. I may not really be able to believe that it takes Juno as long as it does to read the diary pages she finds (I mean, it's 10 minutes reading max and there's a mystery here, for crying out loud) and she's pretty dense about some things (like Neil, for instance) but, like the Hudson that flows through the center of this story (OK, I also enjoy
the fact that for the second time now, she has placed key action in the north tip of Manhattan--places I know because I live here), it flows easily towards its wild conclusion. It's a good read.

If Ms. Goodman is showing an overall weakness, it is borrowing from herself. She stays well within her safety net here: another northeast school campus intrigue with a well-educated but struggling woman protagonist. However, it's difficult to be critical since many authors tend to stay within a certain milleau and they're always told to "write what you know." Still, it might be nice for her to break some new ground in her next novel. Though I have to admit, I am interested in what obsesses her about water: The Lake of Dead Languages, The Seduction of Water and, now, The Drowning Tree. (Plus a lot of drowned characters in three novels.) Maybe we'll get some more clues in the next one.