Former headmaster of an elite upstate New York boarding school, Maggie Detweiler has been called to evaluate the wavering Rye Manor School for Girls in Connecticut. The new headmaster seems uncannily inexperienced to bring Rye out of it's wallowing, and the quaint small town it's in would be devastated by it's closing. At a welcome reception to introduce Maggie to the staff, she meets beloved art history teacher Florence Meagher, who suffers from what multiple people call "the affliction"βshe simply can't, or won't, stop talking. The next day, Florence doesn't come to work, and is reported missing by her annoyed rather than concerned husband.
Maggie immediately feels like things aren't quite what they seem, and when Florence's body surfaces the next day floating in the school pool, she starts an additional investigation into what is really going on. Calling in her socialite best friend Hope Babbin, the two amateur sleuths get down to business to find out if this was a typical marital murder, or something else involving the school. Was it really her husband, who eventually admits his marriage wasn't ideal? Or did the school treasurer have something to hide that Florence discovered? Or could the students be behind it all? As Maggie and Hope uncover more and more clues, the final answer is not what they ever expected...
An entertaining and quick mystery! THE AFFLICTION by Beth Gutcheson keeps readers interested with it's vast cast of characters, and Maggie and Hope at the center of it all. Slightly far-fetched that two amateur detectives got away with as much as they did, it was still an engaging story, with two women at its heart, trying to find justice for someone wrongly killed. The strong female friendship will keep readers going; when Maggie and Beth are on the page together, they are so much fun, even with the murderous plot. Between witty banter, they feed off of one another and come to startling conclusions that move the mystery further along.
There were a few too many characters in the book whose stories don't come to a completely satisfying endings, but they do have important parts within the overall mystery of the book. Additionally, the actual "affliction" came across as just an annoying problem the poor murdered woman suffered from, rather than something that constituted it being the title of the book. Reminiscent of MURDER SHE WROTE, THE AFFLICTION is an appealing cozy mystery with dark social commentary mixed in, and an astonishing end. Recommended for mystery fans.
The New York Times bestselling author of More
Than You Know, Leeway Cottage, and Death at
Breakfast delivers the second installment in her clever
romp of a mystery series combining social comedy and
dark-hearted murderβa novel set at a girlsβ boarding school
in a picturesque Hudson River town with more than its share
of secrets.
Since retiring as head of a famous New York City private
school, Maggie Detweiler is busier than ever. Chairing a
team to evaluate the faltering Rye Manor School for girls,
she will determine whether, in spite of its fabled past, the
school has a future at all. With so much on the line for so
many, tensions on campus are at an excruciating pitch, and
Maggie expects to be as welcome as a case of Ebola virus.
At a reception for the faculty and trustees to "welcome"
Maggieβs team, no one seems more keen for all to go well
than Florence Meagher, a star teacher who is loved and
respected in spite of her afflictionβthat she can never stop
talking.
Florence is one of those dedicated teachers for whom the
school is her life, and yet the next morning, when Maggie
arrives to observe her teaching, Florence is missing.
Florenceβs husband, Ray, an auxiliary policeman in the
village, seems more annoyed than alarmed at her
disappearance. But Florenceβs sister is distraught. There
have been tensions in the marriage, and at their last visit,
Florence had warned, "If anything happens to me, donβt
assume itβs an accident."
Two days later, Florenceβs body is found in the campus
swimming pool.
Maggie is asked to stay on to coach the very young and
inexperienced head of Rye Manor through the crisis. Maggie
obviously knows schools, but she also knows something about
investigating murder, having solved a mysterious death in
Maine the previous year when the police went after the wrong
suspect. She is soon joined by her madcap socialite friend
Hope, who is jonesing for an excuse to ditch her book club
anyway, before she has to actually read Silas Marner.
What on earth is going on in this idyllic town? Is this a
run-of-the-mill marital murder? Or does it have something to
do with the school board treasurerβs real estate schemes?
And what is up with the vicious cyber-bullying thatβs
unsettled everyone, or with the disturbed teenaged boy whom
Florence had made a pet of? And is it possible that someone
killed Florence just so sheβd finally shut up?
No excerpt available.
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