A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #13 - Epitaph for Emily

The thirteenth Zebra Mystery Puzzler introduces readers to a new protagonist, as well as a new author to the series.  D.W. Christner is actually David W. Christner, a Navy veteran who served in Vietnam; he is not only an author of novels, but also of stage plays, a number of which were finalists or winners in national and international playwriting competitions.  More about Christner can be found on his Amazon biography page (David W. Christner).  I am assuming the publisher used the "D.W." to avoid readers thinking the book was written by a man, since all of the books in this series are published under female author names.  This was Christner's only entry into the Zebra Mystery Puzzlers, so this is the only story we have with female sleuth, Jenny Wick.

 

Epitaph for Emily is definitely the darkest mystery I have read in a long time (if not ever!).  The story opens on a depressing note, with the funeral of Emily Abbott, and it pretty much keeps getting darker and darker with the turn of every page.  The story's protagonist is Jenny Wicks - but before I can proceed to talk about the character and her story, I must first point out a major inconsistency with her name.  The synopsis for the book on the back cover identifies her as "reporter Jennie Wicks," spelling her name with an "ie" instead of a "y" - yet, throughout the entire book, her name is spelled "Jenny" with a "y."  To confuse matters more, the illustration on page 93 has an envelope that is addressed to her, and it shows her name as "Jennie" with an "ie."  So, this begs the question: was the story originally intended to have her name spelled "Jennie," but somewhere along the way in the writing or editing process, the name was changed to "Jenny," or was the individual at the publisher in charge of the synopsis and illustrations simply unaware of the spelling of the main character's name?  That is one mystery I'd love to see solved!

 

In any event, Jenny Wicks is truly the focal point of this entire mystery.  It is her grandmother, Emily Abbot, who dies and is revealed to have been murdered.  This start Jenny on her journey to uncover the truth - but in so doing, she begins to realize the truth may not be what she wants.  Along the way, she discovers her grandfather was murdered in much the same way as her Emily.  And then a witness disappears, believed to have been washed out into the ocean.  Then her own mother, Sarah, dies.  Poor Sarah, who had her own issues, making it difficult to be a mother, leaving Jenny to be raised by her grandmother.  A grandmother who lied to her about pretty much everything.  Her father.  Her grandfather.  Her mother.  As I said, the story is very dark, and as the reader learns more and more about Jenny's family history and the truth begins to unravel, you realize that V.C. Andrews had absolutely nothing on D.W. Christner!  (And if you get my meaning here, then you'll have a clue as to what kind of family truths I'm referring to in this story!)

 

Christner does a fairly decent job of misdirecting the reader numerous times as Jenny digs deeper into the truth about Emily Abbott's murder and the identity of her real father.  It could be the family doctor that Jenny has known all of her life; it could be the unbalanced man who was (perhaps wrongfully) accused and convicted of her grandfather's murder; it could be the war hero turned attorney living in Tennessee whose photo Jenny finds among her mother's possessions; and upon learning that Sarah was sexually abused by Emily's husband, it could potentially have been her own grandfather!  But there is a simple clue that the author makes a specific point of mentioning about half-way through the story (and has an illustration to go right along with it) that pretty much gave it away for me.  Despite all of the other possibilities, that one clue pretty much cinched the case in my book.

 

The book gives readers a much more flawed protagonist than any of the prior books.  Jenny smokes pretty heavily, even though everyone around her is trying to get her to kick the habit (the author even mentions the whole "cigarettes cause cancer" line, which was only just becoming a big thing in the late '70s when this book came out). Jenny is also not tied down to one man.  She is dating two different men, both of whom ask her to marry him, and both of whom she turns down.  She even makes it clear to one of them that he is not the only man with whom she is having sex!  I cannot say whether these traits made the character more relatable to women reading the book back when it was first published in early 1979, but it definitely struck me as out of the ordinary while I was reading it for the time in which it was set.

 

On another note, the author uses a number of actual locations as settings for the mystery.  From the description of Narragansett Bay, Conanicut Island, and the Newport Bridge (p. 34), all of which are located in Rhode Island, to this historical founding of Newport by William Coddington (p. 50), as well as its use by the Vanderbilts and other wealthy families (p. 50).  There is also mention of Jenny driving down Bellevue Avenue and Ruggles Avenue (p. 64), both of which are actual streets in Newport.  Later, the author makes reference to the Tavern, "an old English style pub located on Memorial Boulevard, just around the corner from the famous Newport Casino..." (p. 76).  Again, there is a "Tavern" located at 3 Memorial Boulevard, which is right near the corner of Memorial and Bellevue; and the Newport Casino is located at 180-200 Bellevue Avenue, just a block or so from Memorial.  Thus, the author nailed the directions exactly. Finally, when Jenny decides to track down a man she believes to be her father in Tennessee, the author has her driving down I-95, where she picks up old U.S. 501 until she reaches I-81, which takes her into Tennessee.  Looking at a map, those are the directions needed that would take her down the East Coast and then westward into Tennessee.  It is these type of factual references that give a level of believability to a fictional story such as this.

 

Finally, I have no idea who provided the art for the interior illustrations, but they are similar enough to the artist who did illustrations for a couple of the Maxine Reynolds stories by Marjorie Grove to make me believe it is the same artist.  While Jenny is not unattractive on the cover, in the interior illustrations, Jenny is looks considerably older and, in fact, bears a striking resemblance to actress Carol Ann Ford, who portrayed "Susan" in the original seasons of Doctor Who. Additionally, the character who is described as an "old man" (p. 10) and later as "older than [Jenny] remembered..." (p. 172); yet, the illustrations of him depict him as a man who appears to be in his early 30s at best.  These type of inconsistencies lead me to believe the illustrators are not necessarily given details about the characters they are asked to draw for the books.

 

While I would not say this is one of my favorite of the Zebra Mystery Puzzlers so far, I would not call it bad by any means.  Different, yet.  Darker, definitely.  Worth the read, no doubt.  I will say, though, I am glad that there were no further stories from his author in the line.   I don't believe I would like to read more stories in this vein.

 

RATING:  8 itching birthmarks out of 10 for turning a V.C. Andrews-type story into a sordid, soap opera style murder mystery!