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Summary
Summary
Lee Donne's family is gifted. Her mother has three doctorates, her father is an economics genius, and her grandfather is a world renowned Shakespearean scholar. Lee's own gift, if you could call it that, is an eidetic memory that seems to maintain a visual representation of everything she's ever seen. For the most part, this gift is useless; it certainly hasn't helped Lee in college, where she's just spent four years drifting from major to major, with no degree in sight.
Without a job or prospects, Lee is relieved to be housesitting her grandfather's isolated Oregon home. But her stay soon becomes a nightmare when she is tormented by strange and menacing noises at night. Emboldened by a visit from her friend Casey, Lee finds that the source of these haunting sounds is an all-too-human force - a young and well-respected man.
He knew that Lee's grandfather would be away, but what could he have been looking for? The search for answers takes Lee from the Pacific Northwest to the streets of New Orleans.
Using her strange gift as she probes into her family's past, Lee uncovers secrets more far-reaching and sinister than she ever could imagine.
Author Notes
Kate Wilhelm was born Katie Gertrude Meredith in Dayton, Ohio on June 8, 1928. Her first book, More Bitter Than Death, was published in 1963. She wrote over 75 books in many genres including science fiction, mystery, and fantasy. Her books included The Clone, the Barbara Holloway mystery series, and Welcome, Chaos. Her short stories and novellas won several Nebula Awards. Her novel Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang and her how-to book Storyteller: Writing Lessons and More From 27 Years of the Clarion Writers' Workshop won Hugo Awards.
She and her husband, author and editor Damon Knight, trained numerous writers through their Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop and the annual Milford Writers' Conference. She died from respiratory failure on March 8, 2018 at the age of 89.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Marilee Donne is the academic loser of an overachieving family who is accidentally responsible for a young stalker's death while house-sitting for her grandfather in Eugene, Ore. The novel follows her attempt with the help of her best friend, Casey, and a smalltown reporter, Bruno to unravel the stalker's motivation, as we discover that he was not after Marilee but evidence of a Klan lynching tucked away in her grandfather's house. When they learn that the lynching involved an up-and-coming presidential candidate, their trip takes them to New Orleans in search of the evidence they need to seal the case against him. Wilhelm tackles difficult material in her latest novel, not altogether successfully. Her dated hyper-consciousness of race is jarring: Casey, Marilee's brainy African-American friend, is described as a sort of unlikely prodigy, and Marilee constantly worries that their friendship will be misinterpreted "I could imagine what his report had been: lesbian lovers, a violent black woman beating up on her little blond partner." Wilhelm equates the Crescent City with the racist Deep South of yore, and the dire warnings strangers give Casey not to be seen eating with Marilee (or "someone might decide to run a truck into that old heap of yours") are in a modern town that's more than half African-American ludicrous. Likewise, statements such as "although desegregation was the law of the land, segregation ruled" take powerful liberty with the actual city. The mystery at the heart of the novel is well crafted, but the gee-whiz narration and implausible context sink this well-intentioned whodunit. (Aug. 12) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
No degree, no job, no boyfriend, no prospects for floundering underachiever Lee Donne, whose most prestigious position is housesitting for her grandfather while he's off lecturing on Shakespeare. When someone keeps throwing gravel at the roof in the middle of the night, Lee is scared. With help from her visiting college roommate, computer whiz Casey, she tries to trap the intruder, with horrendous results. Soon enough, the FBI pops 'round and insists on searching the house. They find nothing, but Lee does: a cache of pictures taken at a lynching 45 years ago. One of the participants is her grandmother Geneva; another is Walter Dumarie, now a third-party presidential candidate. When Lee calls her supposed FBI contact to report, the Bureau insists it never heard of him. Baffled, she rings up the most honest man she knows, ugly Bruno Perillo, a former college instructor now a San Jose newspaper reporter. Together, aided by some new skullduggery by Casey and some backing from Bruno's paper, they hotfoot it to New Orleans to try identifying the locations in the photographs. They're shot at and chased across the country before the fake FBI agent reappears, only to be thwarted by a brave and wily bank teller. What starts as a creepy endangered-woman scenario quickly deepens to a study of family secrets and loyalty before it's undercut by a typical high-speed chase. Even then, old pro Wilhelm (Desperate Measures, 2001, etc.) presents the women in Lee's family with such psychological acuity that you can't help caring about them.
