The Fate of Pryde, Second in Extraordinary Psychological Suspense Trilogy by Mary E. Martin!

"Good Evening Mr. Helmsworth. Mr. Pryde would very much like to be introduced to Mr. Wainwright."
I nodded enthusiastically and hunted Alex down...
(Jamie Helmsworth is Alexander Wainwright's associate and narrator of the stories)
"Alex?" I tugged on his sleeve. "Jonathan Pryde is here and wants to speak with you."

 Alex accompanied me to the foyer. Jonathan stepped forward flanked by Fizzy and another man."
Mr. Pryde," I began rather formally. "I'd like to introduce you to Mr. Alexander Wainwright.
Alex took Pryde's hand. "Thank you for coming this evening. I understand we have business to discuss.."
Pryde smiled warmly. "It's a very great honor sir. I have admired your work for many years particularly for its visionary quality...."
"May I ask you a question, Mr. Wainwright?"
"Of course..."

Painting Selected by BRH

"The River of Remembrance is your first painting in which the human figure is the focus. How on earth did you paint such numinous figures in such a dramatic landscape?"
At first, Alexander was at a loss for words. Jonathan had touched upon the problem that had bedeviled Alex for much of his career. Why can't I paint the human figure in my landscapes with the same light emanating from within? His painting on the next wall, The Hay Wagon, had stunned the art world with the sheer beauty of its light, which promised other worlds to behold. This light came from within the landscape itself--comprised of a broken-down hay wagon in front of a dilapidated barn, behind which an old horse limped about. Then, just last year, he began to paint ugly, misshapen creatures on a beautiful landscape. The trolls, he called them. Until The River of Remembrance, Alex had been unable to create the same glorious light emanating from the human figure and for this, he suffered greatly.

Alex had not replied. Pryde looked closely at him. "Forgive me if my question is impertinent, but I sense there's been a major change in the painter of those two works of art...

Alexander paused on the top step of the National Gallery. He loved the sweep below him of Trafalgar Square with the fountains and mermaid lit up and with Nelson's Column rising ever upward into the night sky. Although he had lived most of his life in London, the city remained forever magical to him. He breated in deeply and tried to remember every detail his eye perceived from the church portico of St. Martin's in the Field far to the left and Canada House to the right.

Beyond--underneath or behind--each detail pulsed a vibrant energy, which assured him he was a part of a wonderful creation. That lovely sense was so often lost in the din of daily life, but sometimes, when he least expected it, it was there filling him with sublime joy. When he saw the world this way he knew his muse was not far off...

~~~

The Fate of Pryde:

The Second in the Trilogy of Remembrance

By Mary E. Martin

It was a routine introduction of an artist with a possible patron that begins this novel, but what Martin presents to readers is so well hidden... Reading along of normal actions within the art world may seem boring for some, tedious to others...But what that means is that you are missing the sense of mystery, the touch of the mystic and even sometimes the paranormal that surrounds this amazing merge of a fight between good and evil that will not only keep you in suspense until nearly the end but will have readers totally on edge wondering--What in the world is going on...

While the first novel certainly introduces readers to the artists' world, the main characters and a sense of how the main character, Alex Wainwright, lives--somewhat in a cocoon of aloneness where he interacts with none, other than his muse--sometimes to the detriment of some of his personal relationships. The Fate of Pryde is much darker, devious. Think Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, except that Jonathan Pride is fully aware of his actions, spending his life trying to accept and justify his two faces...

Throughout the novel, readers meet individuals who speak against Pride, mainly wondering where his money is coming from and, even more, how he's choosing to spend it.  He meets Alexander, however, in his own world--art, beauty, and his own contributions and quickly wins him as an interested participant in his next, desired project...

He wants to commission Alexander Wainwright to move into the creation of stained glass windows! Something about which he knows nothing and has never even thought of as a medium...

Alex was intrigued enough to consider the project, even to the extent of exploring how the craft was done and what materials he personally would need to use. I was intrigued, more, with why an award-winning artist would take a challenge to start anew in an entirely alien medium...

At about the same time period in the novel, Peter, Alex's friend, is involved with trying to adjust to his mother's loss of her husband and moving into a personal care facility. Alex, on the other hand, was invited to Pryde's home where he discovered that his home had also become somewhat of a personal care facility. Except that the individuals were all brilliant individuals who had been invited to Pryde's home...and wound up staying... They stayed years, still claiming they were free to leave at any time. Fortunately, Alex's own strength immediately put him on alert as he meets with other "guests" and recognizes their former fame in their professional fields...

Except readers discover that both of these facilities have a fourth floor...in which many are imprisoned.  A strange comparison between Peter's and Alex's responses may make readers sit up and take notice, especially if you have family members in this type of retirement home...

Alex accepts the commission for the windows and one by one he has visions of what he would create for the windows... One of the issues that readers will be taunted by is the whole matter of whether or not people have had visions... What role this has in questions which arise from the title of the novel is ever present as we read, but even at the end we are left wondering... Alex had had visions before, which normally led to something inspirational in his work... But was that the same for all the people who were now living in Pryde's home?

This second novel is so complex, you will need to be alert to any nuance, no matter how small an issue it might be...Clues are hung tantalizing, caught only if the reader has fully engaged and entered into the novel. If you don't you will miss a brilliantly plotted story menacingly dark--but in the midst of the natural light that comes from the main character, Wainwright, a man who seems almost like an anti-hero but shares his light through not only his artistic endeavors, but in his dignity, grace and personality.

Enter into this fantastic novel openly willing to allow it to possess you, to watch a world that contradicts anything you may believe is real...only to face our own reality at book's end...


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MARY E. MARTIN graduated in Honours History at the University of Toronto and in law at Queens University, Kingston. She practised law for thirty years in Toronto. She and her husband live in Toronto and have three adult children, one grandson and one granddaughter.

Note: This author has a high presence across the Internet and provides pics of characters, etc...Do check to find her wherever you may visit! She's bound to be there sharing!

Alena by Rachel Pastan Not What I'd Recommend...

Works at 54th Venice Biennale,
 special edition for the 150 Anniversary
 of Italian Unification, 2011-2012

"...the highlight of Louise's life was the Venice Biennale, to which the museum did not send her but which they encouraged her to attend--on her own dime--no doubt in part because it was restful having her away from the office. I started working at the museum in October, and the following spring Louise announced that she had a treat for me. She invited me into her crepuscular office, thickly hung with frame exhibition posters from her shows, and pinned up invitations to openings, and dusty shawls, and a special rack where she kept several pairs of expensive shoes, and she announced that she was taking me with her to the Biennale.

The Crucifixion of Rimini

"You've been to Venice? No? To Italy? Heavens, and you an art history major! What a crime--never to have seen the Giottos.
""I felt such contradictory feelings--the thrill of the idea of Venice (Italy, travel, glamour, the Biennale) and the sting of her false sympathy that was really scorn. Dismay at all the time I would be forced to spend with Louise, dread of the obligation I would be put under, shame that I didn't have anything decent to wear. But mostly the thrill. I was twenty-five years old and I had never been on an airplane! I would have to get a passport. I would step into a gondola in the golden light and watch the fabled facades drift by. I would dazzle my eyes with the riches of Saint Mark's and stroll down narrow byways overhung with flowers where a handsome Italian with a cigarette would follow me with his smoldering eyes.
"And so I found myself, in the last week of June, in a small room adjoining Louise's large one in the Hotel da Silva in Venice--crowded, hot, smelly, bedazzling Venice, city of water and glass. We spent the first days of that trip in a whirlwind of parties and pavilions. Never having been to Venice--hever having been anywhere--I would have liked to spend a day in St. Mark's Basilica, to visit the Accademic and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. But of course, we were here to see the Biennale, which along with the other exhibitions, programs, and special events that spring up in its shade every odd-
numbered year, spreads its tentacles out from the Giardini and hold the city tight in the grip of glitter and celebrity.
"Nothing could have prepared me for the way all of Venice was possessed by the passion for art, for the new, for the most outrageous. I had seen a lot of strange disturbing art in New York, of course, but in Venice the work seemed bigger and stranger: giant insectlike forms hulking in marble rooms, heavy canvases thickly smeared with what looked like bloody footprints, video projections showing image of glaciers cut with bodies crowded into hovels, crystalline constructions shattering the dazzling light, monoliths made of counterfeit money, collages of naked superheroes tumbling through space.
There  was no quiet art in sight--no understated painting, no delicate sculpture of spun thread, no place the eye could find rest. Or maybe it was partly the crowds, the echoing cries as people greeted each other, the constant jockeying and air kissing and insincere murmuring and sizing up...

~~~

Alena

By Rachel Pastan

It's funny how different people can perceive the same novel so differently, don't you think? For some earlier readers, and perhaps even the author[?] it was felt this story was "homage" to Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca. Oh, there were a few comparable issues that readers may pick up, but, for me, the gothic atmosphere was nowhere to be seen... The romance just was not there, especially since the lead was gay and showed no interest in changing... Perhaps there was the obsessiveness between the two--the deceased female and the lead male. And certainly there was obsession on the part of the older female friend and co-worker, but the setting, the players and so much more is so contemporary that I saw nothing significant that you should plan on, if you enjoy gothic suspense... When a classic loved by many is chosen to emulate, it must be great in all ways... Just my opinion, of course....

At the same time, the story was interesting, if only for the many questions I had while reading...

It didn't matter to me that she, the narrator, was never named, as in Rebecca. Frankly, for the majority of the book, I would have forgotten her name even while talking to her; in fact, I wanted to slap her a couple of times to wake her up! Dare I say a wimp! Some people would call me a country girl from way back, but at 25, this lady had apparently done nothing except go to college and get a dead-end job with a woman who does not need help except for a gopher. In fact, when they arrived in Italy, that became even more so as she ran after her boss, getting things, etc... I wouldn't have been surprised if she had been a nun in college; she was so backward, it was, quite simply, unbelievable...

"My mouth was dry. She continued toward me
down the hall, growing larger, blocking out the
light, her starburst of keys jamgling on their
leather strap.
"Do you want to know what's behind there?"
She asked. She was so close that I could smell
her: the burnt chemical odor of her hair, and the
sweetness of incense, and the pungency of old
cigarette smoke and cloves.
"I shrugged. I didn't care what was behind the
door, not anymore. I wanted to get away from
her, but I knew I had to stay.
"Why don't I show you." Agnes drew nearer still.
Heat radiated from her body in the cool hall.
She was standing far too close to me. I took a
step back and she took one forward, and now I
was pressed up against the door. There was
nowhere to go. She chose a key from her dangling
bundle and shook the whole bunch at me until
my slow brain understood that she wanted me
to move aside.
~~~

When she gets there, she happens to catch the eye of a well-known small private museum owner, who is presently the brunt of constant gossip because his former curator has disappeared and assumed dead... murdered?

They meet because of her expertise and involvement in the art works when she has been able to escape from Louise and get into deep conversations. This time in their lives is quite enjoyable and perhaps is the best part of the book since their discussions were also informative...

When Louise becomes ill, however, she wants to go home and the girl, woman, assistant who is nameless (sigh) goes running  to Bernard Augustin. His museum is on Cape Cod and when confronted with "her" desire to remain in Italy, he impulsively suggests she stay with him and then come to become his curator...

Perfect!

Not!

Once they got there, Bernard left  for other activities. Although hired as the curator, age 25, she allowed the business manager to intimidate her, not providing her a key, not even providing what would be considered the first thing, which would be a tour of the entire facility.

In turn, instead of taking over as she should have, she tried to find out more about the past curator...

Really, it was just toooo much! Of Nothing... The last part of the book finally got into the details of it all and, if better presented, the book could have been finished in about half the size of the novel...

Disappointing to say the least because the conceptual under-story is sound. The main female character was a complete flop...

I am aware that my personal experience as an administrator and facilities manager formed my bias; however, nobody these days would hire somebody and retain her given her actions. She "allowed"
 everything to happen to her, which is just not the ways of contemporary women in today's world. Unfortunately, in allowing this to go on and on, the author prevented any potential suspense and atmosphere to develop simply due to lack of action by that character. The parts that she did finally do in relation to getting an exhibit started seemed hurried, unprofessional, and indeed, was done without any consultation with anybody...Duh... 

A shame really... 


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I Love A Good Mystery! You?

Serenity prayer, extended version: serenity, courage & wisdom + patience, appreciation, tolerance & strength (Photo credit: gumption)A Trick of the Light
     (Audio Version)
A Chief Inspector 
 Gamache Novel


By Louise Penny








I hadn't enjoyed a "good ole' fashion" mystery for a long time--you know the kind that goes through the crime step-by-step and then winds up in some central setting where the lead investigator--in this case, Chief Inspector Gamache--solves the crime and points out the perpetrator who is there and then that individual shares his side of the "why" of the whodunit! This type of novel certainly allows we readers the wonderful chance of working along in solving the crime, even if we aren't successful in solving the case before the end! Only one thing dampened my enjoyment of Louise Penny's latest Gamache mystery. For those of you like me, who doesn't have an ear for languages, the audio version is beautifully read by Ralph Cosham and while his pronunciation of characters names in French was excellent, for me it was hard to follow who was who, especially when a first-name was used. Nevertheless, I highly recommend that mystery lovers either read or listen to A Trick of the Light! It is  first-class in the more traditional mystery from which many of us first came to love mysteries and their writers!

Penny takes us deep into the art world in Montreal where Clara Morrow, an older artist, has had her first, somewhat unexpected, solo show at Musee, receiving many rave reviews...  The concept of her show was intriguing to me--painting portraits using the women in her village. One was especially interesting in using one woman as the older Virgin Mother...made me wish I could see the painting! Still, there were some that didn't understand her work, or perhaps were jealous. This included her husband...

In celebration a town-wide party hav been arranged back in her home town, Three Pines, which was attended by nearly everybody in town and including many invited guests from the art world. But one woman showed up unexpectedly. She had been a childhood friend of Clara, but their friendship had been broken for many years.

Now that friend, Lillian Dyson, was dead. Found behind Clara's home, in the garden flowers...

They found a small coin-like circle under her body later. In was the type of token given to members of AA...

Of course, there were many potential witnesses to be interviewed and we are privy to each one. During that time we learn that Lillian was also an artist now, but that she had been a literary critic in the past. What Gamache found most interesting was the difference between descriptions from Clara and others who had known her in the past and most remembered her for how cruelly she could treat others, including in her writings. But those who had met and known her as a struggling and somewhat successful member of AA had quite a different version. One in particular was her sponsor there, also an artist, who had witnessed how she was improving.

Her sponsor thought that Lillian might even had been trying to make amends for her past...so the investigation turned more toward that time. At the same time, however, they had discovered her present work as an artist--would it be worth more with that artist dead? There were so many plausible reasons for Lillian to have been murdered! Had she really changed via AA? Can people really change at all? This underlying theme weaves through many lives, past and present, and allows readers to ponder just how much people, including us(s), can really change?

Brilliantly presented for us as we work through the steps that the victim had walked in her life--affecting some personally, others professionally. As a reviewer, I was especially intrigued by how those in the art world quoted, memorized, and referred often to comments by critics...and their affect on the "victims" of those reviews!

Intriguing story! Investigating skills exhibited at their best. Do consider Louise Penny's A Trick of the Light!

Biography

LOUISE PENNY is an award-winning journalist who worked for many years for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She lives in a small village south of Montréal where she writes, skis, and volunteers. Her bestselling first mystery, Still Life, was the winner of the New Blood Dagger, Arthur Ellis, Barry, Anthony, and Dilys awards; and her second, A Fatal Grace, won the Agatha Award for Best Novel in 2008. Visit her website at www.louisepenny.com.

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