#79- Amagansett

Book No: 79
Title: Amagansett
Author: Mark Mills
Genre: Mystery
Published: 2004
Obtained: 2006/Paperbackswap
Completed: 10/20/2008
No. of Pages: 392
Rating: 3.5/5*****
A very character driven and slowed paced mystery set in post WWII Long Island.
I really enjoyed this book. The pacing was slow, the characterization rich and the mystery quite involving. It's was also set in Long Island, where I live, in one of my favorite areas of the island - so I 'knew' many of the places mentioned in the book.
When Conrad Labarde is out fishing one morning he finds the body of Lily Wallace - the daughter of one of the wealthier 'summer people'. The local police officer, Tom Hollis, a recent NYC transplant is willing to accept the coroner's cause of death as suicide by drowning; until Conrad begins to point out some conflicting evidence. Conrad then mentions one name to Hollis, Lizzie Jenks, a young victim of a hit and run two years earlier. What does Lillian have to do with Lizzie and more to the point what does Conrad know about it?
Very complex, beautifully written and well researched this is a book to savor. The portrait of the Long Island fisherman, once the main livelihood of the east coast, now virtually extinct, is fascinating in and of itself. Not for lovers of slash and burn thrillers, this is a more literary take on a murder mystery.