That Girl - a gothic based on the popular ABC-TV comedy series...

"She's a frightened young maiden pursued on a haunted moor by a wrathful wraith.  Would you believe she's THAT GIRL" (from the front cover blurb)

 

Of all of the television shows in the world that I would have ever thought could be made into a gothic romance / mystery, the 1966-71 television show That Girl is probably one of the last that would come to mind.  I mean, let's be serious - a comedy television show about an aspiring young actress in New York City, who is forced to take a variety of odd jobs to temporarily make ends meet in between auditions and bit parts.  She is always hoping to make it "big," but never seems to land that starring role in any show.  It was pure comedy that lasted five season, and so it is surprising that someone would take such a premise and turn it into a gothic novel.  But that is just what happened.  In 1971, just shortly after the television show wrapped, Ann Marie appeared in her first, and only, novel (loosely - VERY loosely) based on the show ... 

 

That Girl, besides being the name of the television show and featuring the actress, Marlo Thomas, on the cover, has very little ties to its small screen counterpart upon which it is allegedly based.  While author Paul W. Fairman uses the names - Ann Marie and Donald Hollinger - and the fact that Ann is an aspiring actress, the characters themselves are a far cry from those viewers watched on their television sets each week for the previous five years.  Don't get me wrong.  The story itself is actually pretty good and most definitely gothic in its setting and scenes; however, it feels almost as if Fairman simply replaced the name of his title character with the name of that girl (get it?) in order to create a TV tie-in novel.  Which leads me to question - did he already have this story written (or at least in mind) when he was asked to do the tie-in novel; or did he come up with the idea after he took the job?  In either event, if you can read the story without thinking of Marlo Thomas or the television show, then I think you'll find the story is quite creative and fun to read!

 

I do have to give Fairman some credit with regard to the story - it is definitely a creative twist.  Ann Marie gets a chance to play the role of Cathy in Wuthering Heights in a small Maine town known as Berkeley Heights.  It's a summer stock show, and Ann will have the opportunity to play a lead role - a chance she has been longing for; and the icing on the cake is that all expenses are being paid!  Despite her fiance's misgivings, Ann boards the bus for Maine (where one little old lady looks at her Ann and immediately asks another old lady, "Who is that girl?" - a nice nod to the opening of each episode of the television show.  But it is only the first two chapters that are somewhat light-hearted.  Once Ann reaches Berkeley Heights, she begins to realize something is very wrong.  First, the bus drops her off on an empty stretch of highway, no crossroad, no house, no indication of civilization anywhere near it.  Then, a mysterious stranger on horseback shows up and tells her she is late, before taking off, leaving her to await a coach.  A coach?  Wait, what year is this...?  And why does this set up sound vaguely familiar...?   (Hmmm, perhaps because the same thing occurred during the opening of An Innocent Madness by Dulcie Hollyock nearly a decade later.)

 

Well, Ann soon discovers that someone has gone to great lengths to recreate Thruscross Grange and Wuthering Heights, including the moors, gardens, and grounds.  And what is even more strange is everyone is wearing costumes from the 1800s, and they are all referring to themselves as the characters from Emily Bronte's novel.  At first, Ann thinks they are simply rehearsing for whatever play is going to be performed.  Until she discovers there is no theater.  And the "actors" are afraid to step out of character for even one second.  And there are no dates for any performances of the play.  No, in this secluded part of Maine, someone is determined to bring Wuthering Heights to life and to keep it going ... and going ... and going.  Every actor has literally become their character, and it is expected that Ann will literally be Cathy!  Suddenly, Ann starts wishing she had listened to Donald and never taken the role!

 

In true gothic style, the story takes some dark turns, with a mysterious stranger appearing and disappearing - saving Ann from a deadly fall and leaving her a warning on her bathroom mirror.  Then there is the mysterious woman out on the moors.  And why is it that Ann is so tired all the time?  It seems the more tea she drinks, the more tired she becomes... Gradually, her fellow actors begin to let down their guards, and Ann begins to discover the truth about everyone there and what is really going on - and she realizes there is truly only one way to escape.  But then she comes face to face with the woman she replaced, and let's just say the original "Cathy" is none to pleased about her replacement!  This leads to probably the only disappointing thing about the story - the climactic confrontation with "Cathy" - and unlike most gothic heroines, Ann blacks out and is rescued by Donald in one of those last minute saves.  I was really rooting for Ann to not only solve the whole mystery, but also to conquer the villains; sadly, she becomes nothing more than a helpless victim who has to be rescued (thus, taking away all of the credit she deserves for all of the hard work she put into uncovering the truth about what was really going on there).

 

Nevertheless, I did enjoy the story (especially when I set aside any thought of this being a part of the TV show continuity) and loved the unusual plot twist - a gothic within a gothic, so to speak.  I've heard others speak highly of Fairman's work, and after reading this story, I would have to agree. 

 

8 disappearing telephones out of 10 for taking a television comedy and turning it into a serious gothic mystery with a unique and unexpected turn of events!

A Limited Edition Murder - the tenth Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery

It's been well over a year since I read the last book in the Beyond the Page Bookstore mystery series by Lauren Elliott.  So, it's been over a year since poor Addie Greyborne's life was quite literally turned upside down by revelations regarding her parentage and regarding her fiance's previous marriage.  Thus, I suppose it was apropos that I waited to read this book, since I discovered upon reading the first few pages that there is quite the time jump from Dedication to Murder to this book - a year, in fact!  Thus, my timing was actually quite impeccable, since I have now spent the same time away from Greyborne Harbor that Addie did.  Of course, just because she's spent a year in England does not mean that poor Addie can get away from finding a dead body...

A Limited Edition Murder finds our intrepid sleuth trying to come to terms with everything that happened in that last book.  Not only did she find out she was not who she always thought she was for her entire life, but she also discovered that her fiance was still married to his first wife - and has a son by her!  So, Addie escapes to England, where she takes up residence in a cottage owned by her friend and best-selling author, Anthony Radcliffe, who is more than happy to have her visiting, since he is about to formally announce his engagement to Hailey Granger, and Lord Bentley and his new wife will be coming for the engagement party!  It's set to be the biggest event that the small village in West Yorkshire has seen in some time, and while Addie is not overly thrilled at the idea of hobnobbing with near royalty, she is happy for her good friend, and so she wants to support him. Besides, it has been a year, and she will be returning to the States the next weekend after the party.  She has delayed returning home long enough.  Of course, that is when fate intervenes, and Addie stumbles upon a dead body in the moors on the morning after!

I will admit, the opening chapters for this book had me a bit concerned.  Honestly, the writing felt a bit different than Elliott's previous books, and it left me a bit off-kilter.  I can't quite put my finger on what it was while I was reading that felt "off," but I do know one thing that definitely struck me as odd in the writing.  On page 39, when Addie accidentally spills champagne on a mysterious woman in a red and white floral dress and says, as she's trying to wipe up the liquid, "I hope the champagne doesn't settle in the intricate gold filigree setting of that exquisite sapphire."  I found that to be a very unusual wording for someone to actually speak - it reads more like a description an author would use when describing the necklace to the reader.  I tried saying the line out loud, just to hear how it sounds, and it came out very awkward.  And if it were just this one instance, I might have written it off (no pun intended!) as merely a poor choice of wording.  But it happens again just 9 pages later, when Addie is trying to calm an argument between Tony and Lord Bentley, and on page 48, she suggests to Lord Bentley, "why don't you take a seat behind that beautiful carved walnut desk?"  Again, that sounds like an author's description and not dialogue.  People don't naturally go around describing things in that kind of way when they are talking to each other, unless the topic of the discussion is that particular item.  But, honestly, there was more to the odd feeling as I was reading it than these lines of dialogue.

However, I can say that once Addie takes Pippi for her morning walk and comes across the body in the foggy moor, the typical Elliott writing I'm used to reading returns, and boy does it return in full force!  From that moment on, even without Serena or Paige or Marc or any of the other regular supporting cast members I've grown to love in the past nine books, the mystery became so engrossing I could not put it down.  It's not often I finish a 300+ page book in less than 24 hours, but this one is one of them.  While there was one minor clue early on that gave away the identity of the culprit a little too soon, there was still plenty of mystery to solve - such as who killed the step-daughter of Addie's boss at the Second Chance Books and Bindery some twenty years earlier, and how does that connect to this murder?  Is it because both murder victims were wearing the very same necklace before they were killed, yet the necklace was not found on their body after?  Or does it have something to do with that first edition Wuthering Heights that Tony gave to his fiance at the engagement party, only to discover the book actually belonged to Lord Bentley, from whom it had been stolen years ago?  Elliott makes great use of this temporary supporting cast, with some of the characters definitely growing on you (I would love to see Jasper Henderson show up again!  and that DI Parker certainly gives Addie a run for her money!), and she does manage to bring in Serena and Paige, albeit briefly.  Of course, there is one bit of news from the States that Addie learns that did not make me happy at all (and I am hoping that in the next book, that will change, because I've still got my hopes on Addie and Marc getting together in the end!).

The final chapters in the book are somewhat bittersweet, as Addie prepares to return home, having to leave her new friends behind (with some tearful farewells), as well as an unexpected revelation regarding one of the new characters.  Whether this will impact Addie's life going forward, we shall have to wait and see.

Elliott throws in a couple of things in the story that brought a smile to my face.  First is the name of the road that leads to the main shopping district of West Yorkshire, which is aptly named "Crooked Lane" (p. 2).  I realize it is nothing more than a coincidence, but way back in the day - back in 1936 to be exact! - Mildred Wirt, the original ghostwriter of the Nancy Drew books, had a mystery published that was called The Clue at Crooked Lane (The Clue at Crooked Lane).  Which, of course, makes the Nancy Drew reference on page 215 even more ironic!  I'm still holding out hope that since this series is premised on first editions of various famous books, one of these days, Elliott is going to have a mystery that centers around a Nancy Drew book (and if she were to ever do so, I know exactly which Nancy Drew book would make the perfect plot point that someone would kill for!).  Ah, well, one can always dream...

Thus, even though the book got off a rocky start, the murder got everything back on track and left me enjoying the book immensely by the time I finished it!  Now to sit back and wait to see what Elliott has in store for book eleven!

RATING:  9 buckets of composting food out of 10 for another well-plotted murder mystery that once again shows just how well Addie Greyborne can hold herself, even against arrogant, self-absorbed detectives from the English countryside!