She Treads Softly: Liquid Shades of Blue

Friday, May 12, 2023

Liquid Shades of Blue

Liquid Shades of Blue by James Polkinghorn
5/16/23; 208 pages
Oceanview Publishing

Liquid Shades of Blue by James Polkinghorn is a highly recommended mystery.

When ex-lawyer and Key West bar owner Jack Girard hears from his father, Claude “The Duke” Girard, that his mother has committed suicide, which brings up his brother Bobby's suicide when the two were in college. Jack heads to the family home in Miami to face his controlling father and to uncover what really happened to his mother.

This mystery is a short, fast paced novel that moves quickly, almost too quickly. A little more complexity might have made the plot more compelling. On the other hand, the short and to-the-point narrative did hold my attention and it was nice to read a novel swiftly. There are several little twists in the plot as it briskly reaches the final denouement, and you will want to find out the answers Jack is seeking.

Jack is an interesting character, but a bit more nuanced character development might have been nice. There is additional intrigue created with Anna. Both Bobby and their mother had secrets, and these secrets obviously are the impetus to their deaths. The secrets and the real menace in the novel are easily deduced, but it is a quick, entertaining journey to the end.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Oceanview Publishing via NetGalley.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.