There's an inherent risk when a writer bases a work of fiction on real-world events. The similarity might draw the reader in --- at first --- but the event, particularly if it is a sensational one, can often overshadow the novel in a way that it loses its identity and becomes known around the water cooler as "the book that was just like what happened when X did y to Z," with the author regrettably but irretrievably forgotten. I could name a half-dozen books like that, except I've forgotten their titles. And their authors.
That isn't going to happen to Caroline Slate with her novel THE HOUSE ON SPRUCEWOOD LANE. The "it" of the whodunit is, with a couple of minor changes, the murder of JonBenet Ramsey. That's the hook. What makes you want to not let go, even as you're being dragged toward a lost weekend with this fine novel, is Slate's approach to the crime, which soon has the reader immersed in the author's world as opposed to the crime that took place in our own.
Slate's JonBenet is Calista McQuade, a 10-year-old gymnast who is widely regarded as having Olympic potential. When she is found murdered in her parents' Westport, Connecticut home, it is a classic "locked house" mystery, if you will. There is no lack of suspects, however, as Calista's parents, Melanie and Tom McQuade, and her brilliant but troubled 12-year-old brother, Jared, were all in the house with her that night.
The approach most authors would have taken would be to present this as a police procedural. That's not the case here. No, we see THE HOUSE ON SPRUCEWOOD LANE through the eyes of Alexis Cavanaugh, estranged sister to Melanie and aunt to Calista and Jared. When Lex receives a plaintive transatlantic request from Jared to come to the house, she drops everything and leaves her native England to be by his side, even though she hasn't seen him for six years and the parting with the family was less than amenable. Lex's last visit with the McQuades was terminated by the discovery of her affair with Tom; her presence in the household is, at first, less than welcome. Matters are further complicated by the other dynamics of her relationship with her sister.
Melanie and Lex were separated as children when their mother ran off to England with her lover, unwillingly dragging Lex along with her. The influence that their mother had upon Melanie and Lex resonates and affects virtually everything they do, good and bad. Lex, also, sees parts of herself in Jared, who was forever in his younger sister's shadow and who made no secret of his resentment towards her. Lex, like Melanie and Tom, feel protective of Jared; the difference, however, is that it appears that Melanie and Tom believe that Jared in fact murdered his sister. Lex is torn, at times feeling that he was capable of such an act and at others being unable to believe that he could carry it out. Lex does not set out to solve the mystery of the murder, at least in the classic sense, nor does she seek to exonerate Jared; she simply wants to get at the truth of things. If the truth is that Jared killed his sister, she wants to stand by him and get help for him; if he did not, she wants to know so that...she'll know, and Jared will not be blamed. The key to everything is ultimately Jared. She must win his trust --- and Jared, confused by his own emotions, is unable trust anyone.
THE HOUSE ON SPRUCEWOOD LANE is a very intelligent, smartly written novel with a bit of a new twist in a genre that would seem to have seen all of them. Slate's take on relationships, and how the interplay among family members can haunt future generations, is quite intriguing when set within the mystery genre. Her future work will be worth perusing for that reason alone.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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