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Those of us who are aficionados of the hard-boiled detective novel forget, to our
detriment, that there are other facets of the mystery genre. The domestic mystery is one
of those. These books tend to center on a single event in an undistinguished setting. The
violence in such books, if any, is kept to a minimum and tends to take place off of the
page. And the primary readers of this genre tend to be women. While the authors of these
books have a loyal and regular following, they are also what I would call "vacation
books" or books you might pick up because you have nothing to read while in a city
other than your own.
Lee Harris is one of the more prolific authors of these books, with the
"Holiday" books featuring Christine Bennett. Bennett, a resident of Long Island,
is an ex-nun who is happily married to a cop/attorney and the mother of a three-year-old
son. She also lectures at a nearby university and maintains contacts with her former
convent cohabitants. Bennett is also drawn, and not all that reluctantly, to amateur
detective work. Harris's previous and latest novels featuring Bennett all concern murders
occurring around a day of celebration or commemoration. The latest is THE APRIL FOOLS' DAY
MURDER, which, while running true to form with its predecessors, contains enough variation
and surprises to please regular readers of this series as well as to encourage new or
unfamiliar readers to give it a look.
THE APRIL FOOLS' DAY MURDERS begins with Bennett having a mildly unpleasant though
inconsequential supermarket encounter with Willard Platt, who is definitely in contention
for the title of Town Scold. Her next encounter with Platt, however, is more significant
and far more unpleasant. Bennett finds Platt dead, in his own front yard, with a knife
sticking out of his back. It turns out, however, that Platt has merely staged his death as
an April Fools' Day stunt for the local high school drama club. It is accordingly all the
more disconcerting when later that day Platt is discovered dead again, this time for real
--- and with the murder weapon missing. Platt's widow, familiar with Bennett's efforts in
solving a previous murder, asks Bennett for help in finding the murderer of her husband.
Bennett does not lack for suspects. There is the owner of a local garden nursery, bitter
over Platt's refusal to sell him some real estate. There is Platt's own son, Roger, from
whom he has been bitterly estranged for several years. And there is Platt's widow, who had
motive and opportunity.
Bennett's detection methods consist of gentle but persistent questioning and lots of
thinking. As she slowly begins to uncover secrets involving Platt's prior marriage --- a
marriage he kept secret from most people --- and the death of Platt's grandchild several
years previously, she becomes more unsure than ever as to who killed Platt, and why. There
is one small, almost minor detail that ultimately leads her to Platt's killer. But will
anyone believe her?
Harris, with THE APRIL FOOLS' DAY MURDERS as well as previous works in this series, proves
to be quite adept at crafting a deceptively simple tale of suburban murder and duplicity.
Longtime fans of the series will continue to be quite pleased. Hopefully, Harris will not
exhaust the list of holidays anytime soon.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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