A complex story of depravity

An exploration of a group of lives touched by a murder. The victim was a manipulative and powerful woman. The characters are all well drawn and mostly none are too appealing as individuals. In the end it can be seen as a cynical commentary on post world war 2 life in the United States - the disrution in values perhaps caused by the war.
Not my favorite JMD book but one can see him growing as an author. Interestingly he speaks of Cuernavaca where he had lived, and perhaps the lake front mansion was something he had seen where he spent his summers. ( )

Typical MacDonald nastiness, published in 1954, about a group of people you wouldn't want to be caught in a room with and with a general cynicism about life and the human race in general. Except for the last chapter, the story is told by the eight main characters, each of whom has a chapter that occurs before and after the drowning (or was it murder?) of the manipulative woman who controls each of their destinies. This provides MacDonald eight different platforms to explore the general wretchedness of the human race, as represented by this collection of a business manager and his seemingly quiet wife, an ad man, a public relations man, a bad artist, a comedienne, the drowned woman herself, the sales manager for her cosmetics company, and the sales manager's wife who has morphed into an imitation of the doomed woman. All get their two chapters, except for the dead woman. (Given that a character being dead didn't stop Faulkner, I'm not sure why it stopped MacDonald from giving her a couple of chapters as well.)

Of course, being MacDonald, it's quite readable and has a tabloid-type fascination, though the overall effect is a bit marred by a rather bizarre ending. Bottom line: If you're new to MacDonald, don't start here. Check out my other MacDonald reviews for better books. If you, like me, are inexplicably drawn to the works of this downbeat writer, by all means dive right in. ( )