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Critic's Corner
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DEADFALL Reviewed by: Patricia Ann Jones Lynda Douglas's "Lilacs and Lace" won the 2001 Derringer Award for the best mystery novella, and she was a finalist in the previous year's competition with "Blind Justice." She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, Green River Writers and the Short Mystery Fiction Society. Now, with her novel, "Deadfall," Douglas comes into her own with the first of her National Forest Mystery series. Claire Mitchell, the protagonist of "Deadfall," has a brilliant career, a handsome fiancé and a ten-year gap in her memory. All she has from her childhood are haunting dreams and a heart- shaped locket. "She ran faster and faster, her chest heaving painfully with every stride. In her peripheral vision, tree trunks and deadfall looked like wraiths shrouded in mist . . . Vines tore at her legs, tripping her. Then, without warning, the uneven ground gave way and she tumbled headfirst over an escarpment . . . Her descent came to an abrupt stop when her head struck a boulder at the bottom. She lay motionless, staring up through fern fronds at the forest canopy . . . " Claire awoke with her arms flailing. The dreams were back, the horrible nightmares that haunted her periodically through her childhood and into adulthood. Why now, she wondered. Why? For years she had quelled her curiosity about her childhood. She knew she was adopted at a young age, but her adoptive parents knew nothing of her early years. She'd been found in 1979, a battered ten-year-old clinging to life with a gold locket around her neck. The young university student, Kyle Evers, who found her, saved her life or she surely would have died in the Siskiyou National Forest. Claire Mitchell went through a period of time when she was obsessed with uncovering the mystery of her first ten years of life, but she had finally filed the obsession away along with the three-ring notebook she'd kept for the past 20 years. "Only the nightmares remained, and she thought they, too, had finally receded into the black hole that was her childhood." She felt she'd conjured the nightmares by looking once more at the notebook before going to bed the night before. The only reason she'd looked at the book then was because Richard Westfall had asked her to marry him. Douglas slides you through the mystery of Claire's early years into her adult life with all the expertise of a seasoned author. The transition into the young woman's adult life is seamless. Each character introduced is deftly drawn. Each scene leads you deeper and deeper into Claire Mitchell's story until you find yourself immersed in the adventure and mystery of her life. Richard Westfall, is the son of wealthy parents and is a character you want to like, but his actions betray some hint of a weakness of character you can't quite put your finger on. He's everything Claire's ever wanted in a husband, but . . . That's just it, "but," and until you discover the meaning of that hesitation to accept him you don't understand why you can't trust him. When Richard takes Claire to meet his parents, the plot begins to boil. Claire's apartment is vandalized and she is hit over the head as she interrupts the intruder. At first it appears nothing is taken in the break in. Then, the intruder returns, but is foiled in his attempt to enter Claire's apartment. What did the intruder want? Claire couldn't imagine anything in her apartment worth stealing. Nevertheless, Claire decides to move to a more secure building. Richard asks Beverly, Claire's long time friend to come and stay with her for a few days. He's concerned that Claire's being alone is causing her to imagine "boogie-men" who aren't there. Beverly arrives and all is going well until the day Beverly borrows Claire's car. Beverly ends up murdered. Claire is convinced that she, not Beverly, was the intended victim and that the break-in, the stalking, and all the other suspicious events are tied to her past. Richard, of course, doesn't agree. Someone wants Claire Mitchell dead and she is determined to discover why. Armed with only her intuition that the attempts on her life are connected to her forgotten past, Claire heads to the Siskiyou National Forest where she was found as a child. She intends to find Kyle Evers who is now a Forest Ranger and might be able to help Claire sort out the mysterious happenings in her life. The clues are there, she just hasn't been in the right place to find them. With Kyle, she believes she will. The story that evolves is not only a great mystery, but also an adventure that readers will enjoy. Douglas's style and tone offer an easy read, but one that quickens the heartbeat. The resolution is one of the most exciting I've read in months. Talk about your twists and turns. Don't even try to figure it out, just read and enjoy as Douglas leads you into a mystery that will have you jumping at shadows.
Jones is a published writer & literary critic. Copyright April 8, 2002, Patricia A. Jones, all rights reserved.
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