The Family Tabor, by Cherise Wolas. Flatiron Books, 2018

Nobody knows it, but the Tabor family is on shaky ground. The five gathered (plus grandkids) for the weekend ceremony of presenting the Palm Springs Man of the Decade award to Harry Tabor all have their secrets, Harry most of all.

Everyone in the family is a star; Harry the great philanthropist; his wife, Roma, a child psychologist; the children are two lawyers and an anthropologist. They gather together in a great pool of everybody-is-happy-ism, each determined to hide their problems from the others. But cracks appear fairly rapidly: Phoebe refuses to divulge any details about her new boyfriend, Camille is hiding the job that truly gives her fulfillment, and Simon’s wife refuses to stay in their marriage if he decides to practice his Judaism. Roma knows they are hiding things, but doesn’t know what. And she has no idea her husband is hiding the biggest secret of them all. Then, on the night of the presentation, Harry disappears into the desert night.

Panic ensues. Did he walk into the desert? Was he kidnapped or murdered? The police take the investigation seriously, and their questioning starts turning up surprises. Mysterious bank accounts. Really odd stuff on Harry’s computer. Roma quickly realizes that despite spending her life with him, she really doesn’t know Harry at all. And the kids find themselves forced to look into their own lives and admit the truth.

I have to admit that the ending surprised me. I thought I knew where the author was going, and then, in the last few pages, I find out I was wrong. Well, partly wrong. It was going where I thought it was when it derailed. The last part of the book was kind of a let-down to me, but tolerable. We never get to find out if what Harry was experiencing before his disappearance is real or hallucination. Harry is the center of the mystery and the book, but much of the book is not about him. It’s about his children, and what they need to do to feel authentic; as he needs to confront his past, they need to confront their futures. Four stars. 

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The Very Marrow of Our Bones, by Christine Higdon. ECW Press, 2018

When Lulu Parsons is ten, her mother and another woman from their small town in Vancouver disappear on the same day. No one knows what has become of them; have they been abducted, or murdered, or did they run away together? But Lulu has found a note and knows that her mother is alive. The absence of Bette Parsons tips Lulu into a life of criminal activity, sexual abuse, drugs, drinking, and sleeping with pretty much anyone who asks- and no one in the family is aware of this. She’s the youngest child in the family, and the other kids have no time for raising her. Her ineffectual father is at a loss as to how to deal with his family. Lulu’s voice, in first person, tells half of the story.

The other half, alternating with Lulu, is told in third person from Doris Tenpenny’s point of view. Doris is the mute daughter of the fire and brimstone preacher who expects unreasonable things of his family. She sells eggs and vegetables at their farm stand and customers tell her their secrets, as if they think being unable to speak means being unable to communicate. In reality, she is the most perceptive person in town. She and Lulu find themselves thrown together oddly, when the man who has abused them both leaves his property to the two of them when he dies in a strange accident.

The story is not just about Lulu and Doris, though; it has a huge cast of characters. More than once I got confused as to who people were. The story is not told in linear time but jumps around, which added to my confusion. Covering more than forty years, the story sees the people go through a lot of changes. Families rearrange themselves. I found the book irresistible- I could not stay away from it. The writing is lovely and some of the characters are just wonderful- I would love to be Doris’s neighbor! I give this book four and half stars; it’s a great story but there are a couple of places where it does drag a bit (Bette Parsons, I’m looking at you).

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The Heirs, by Susan Rieger. Crown, 2017

When Rupert Falkes, wealthy New York lawyer, dies, it leaves his family a bit at loose ends. His five sons- all middle aged men successful in their own fields- define themselves very strongly by their family relationships. Widow Eleanor reacts with calmness and proceeds to redecorate their home, which further upsets the boys- they take it as seeing every trace of their father vanish. Everyone is dealing with their loss, though, until yet another upsetting thing occurs: a woman contacts the estate, saying she has two sons by Rupert, and that they deserve a cut of the money- of which there is plenty. Suddenly, Rupert becomes a man they never really knew. Worse, Eleanor reacts calmly, which makes the boys think she knew about the other family all along and didn’t tell them. Rupert is beyond their reach, so they aim their anger at their mother.

The story twines between characters and through time, taking us through the lives and loves of not just Rupert and Eleanor, but of their sons, too. While Rupert and Eleanor seemed to their sons, to glide through life without a slip, there was a lot they never saw going on. All their lives turn out to be much more complex and, well, screwed up, than appears on the surface. These are people of old Eastern seaboard money (well, Rupert is not, having come to America as an orphan from England) and while money is not worried about, appearances are.

None of these people are totally bad (well, maybe the woman who says her sons are Rupert’s), so it was easy to read about them. Even the ones who did wretched things have good sides. I came to really like Eleanor, the calm center of the novel and of the family. The writing I found lovely; I could not put this novel down as something new was always turning up. In the end, we do not ever get the answer we (and the boys) want- but that’s okay. The journey itself is what’s important. 

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Long Black Veil, by Jennifer Finney Boylan. Crown, 2017

 

Long Black Veil, by Jennifer Finney Boylan. Crown, 2017

In 1980, a group of college friends (and the 10 year old brother of one) makes a foray into Eastern State Penitentiary, an abandoned and falling apart structure. Once they are in, they discover that someone has chained the door shut behind them. This isn’t quite the way they wanted to continue celebrating the event of the day before: the marriage of two of their number. It turns even worse when the recent bride disappears… and doesn’t get found, not for a long time.

Thirty five years later, a skeleton is found in the old prison, stuffed into a tunnel. This re-opens the police case; it’s now obvious it was a murder. Most of the group have alibis, but one, the widower, the one with the most obvious motive (her money), has no one to vouch for his whereabouts at the time of her death. One person cannot be questioned, having driven his car off an ocean cliff years ago.

Meanwhile, in a separate narrative, a woman named Judith has been keeping a secret from everyone: her friends, her son, her husband. It’s a big secret, and she fears losing everyone if it comes out. She’s the one person who can save the Casey, the widower, but can she make herself take that huge risk?

While we have a murder mystery for a framework, the story is really character driven. Judith is the one who comes most alive, but most of the others are well drawn and complex. The plot actually lost me near the end; I found myself going Wait, what? and having to go back and reread; I was having trouble keeping track of who was doing what. But it’s worth working through a little confusion; I ended up loving a lot of the story, as the secrets drop away one by one. 

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neither of these things influenced my review.