"ANOTHER GOOD TALE OF LOON LAKE "
Special to the THE CAPITAL TIMES of Madison, Wisconsin
6/28/2007
There's a whole lot of mischief and mayhem happening in Loon Lake. That's not surprising since this fictional small town in northern Wisconsin has played home to Police Chief Lewellyn Ferris and her fishing partner/beau, Paul Osborne, for eight books in the Loon Lake mystery series.
Penned by Wisconsin native Victoria Houston, the series has grown in popularity since its launch in 2000. Part ruminations on the beauty of fishing (specifically fly fishing) and part murder mysteries, the books offer page-turning reads, as well as a cast of sensible but often hilarious characters.
Houston has populated Loon Lake with the kinds of people who can be found in almost any small town in Wisconsin -- larger-than-life folks with strong ties to the place. The result is a charming portrait of this small fictional community and an often spot-on exploration of the intersection between small-town life and city interlopers.
In particular, the author likes to poke at all kinds of bigotries and prejudices. From sexism and racism on the part of small-town bigots to the arrogance of city folk who assume the locals must be stupid, no one escapes Houston's pen.
And because the series takes place in a tourist town, the ongoing crime wave in the tiny Loon Lake even makes sense. After all, a tourist community naturally draws many strangers throughout the year, making it easy to import crime into what otherwise would be a sleepy town.
The latest and eighth entry in the series, "Dead Madonna," features two corpses, a shady bank fraud scheme and a police force stretched thin by the height of tourism season. Chief Ferris ends up relying on a deputized citizen police force -- most notably, Osborne and ne'er-do-well fishing guide and jack-of-all-trades Ray Pradt -- to help her solve the cases. The intertwining mysteries -- the murders and the fraud scheme -- add depth to the novel.
For her eighth book, Houston switched to Wisconsin publisher Bleak House Books, and as a result, "Dead Madonna" is available in both hardcover and trade paperback. The production quality of this latest novel is particularly evident in the cover, which features a moody, evocative lake scene in sepia tones.
In general, Houston's writing has improved over the years. She has more control over her characters, and she has become quite good at setting the scene through the use of spare and sometimes haunting description. The author also has stepped up her use of police jargon and details.
Houston's books are sometimes called "cozy mysteries" -- a term referring to the fact that murder takes place offstage, the main characters are never actually seen engaging in sex, and the characters refrain from using coarse language. Unlike, say, a noir mystery, most cozies end on a happier note with the bad guys caught and the mystery tidily solved.
While all this is true of the Loon Lake series, "Dead Madonna" is certainly Houston's darkest writing to date. The violence is a little more graphic, the sexual tension between Ferris and Osborne simmers, and there are more sexual themes in general.
Readers shouldn't let their unfamiliarity with the series stop them from diving into "Dead Madonna." Anyone can pick up this book and acclimate to the story, and newcomers to Houston's writing will appreciate her ability to explore darker themes while keeping a humorous eye on the goings-on in this small town.
That said, regular fans shouldn't worry that their series is changing too much. The storyline in "Dead Madonna" remains cleaner than most mysteries, and all of Houston's trademark humor and careful writing is still on display. Most notable, of course, is Houston's rendering of Paul Osborne.
The retired dentist and sometimes deputy coroner has a unique understanding of the world around him, and his ruminations and asides offer lots of opportunities for Houston to write great lines, such as when Osborne is faced with a suspect who is particularly annoying and he decides "he couldn't resist responding with the low, authoritative tone he reserved for people who doubted his diagnosis of gum disease -- the ones who refused to believe that, untreated, all their teeth would fall out."
Houston also gives the developing relationship between Osborne and Ferris plenty of time on the page. The two have great chemistry (much of it centered around fishing), and their love, while tempered by many past disappointments with life itself, pops and crackles on the page.
Unfortunately, the novel's wrap-up feels a bit thin, and regular mystery readers may figure out whodunit long before the novel ends. But by that time, readers will likely be invested in the struggles of the characters.
In this case, the old cliche that "the destination matters less than the journey" certainly rings true.
Heather Lee Schroeder is a free-lance writer and journalist who lives in Madison. Her twice-monthly column, Literary Lunch, appears in The Capital Times. She received her master of fine arts degree in creative writing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Article ©2007 Heather Lee Schroeder. Reproduced with the permission of the author.
URL: http://www.victoriahouston.com/dm_hlsreview.html
Last updated: August 18, 2007