THE DROWNING TREE, by Carol Goodman, Ballantine Books, 284 pages, $24.95.
For the third time, Carol Goodman returns to New York's Hudson Valley to weave a mystery spanning a century and the lives of four women.
As with her first two novels, "The Lake of Dead Languages" and "The Seduction of Water," this book also follows the unraveling of the enigmatic mystery of a woman's life and her connection to water. In this case, the lives of two woman, Eugenie Penrose and her sister Clare, are as much a part of the mystery as the narrator, Juno McKay, and her best friend Christine Webb.
When Juno grudgingly appears at her 15-year Penrose College reunion, she arrives late to Christine's lecture about the ominous stained-glass window that overlooks part of the college's library. Called the "Lady in the Window," the piece places the woman in a scene from Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem "The Lady of Shalott." The stained-glass artwork was created by college founder Augustus Penrose, Eugenie's husband. Juno, a second-generation stained-glass artist, is to restore it following the reunion's festivities.
From her research, Christine offers a new theory about the window — that the woman in the piece is not Eugenie, as originally assumed, but her sister Clare. She also offers her ideas as to why Augustus would paint the medieval scene with Clare rather than his wife, as he usually did in his art. Audience members and college officials are shocked, and that outrage is only the beginning of a complex series of events that prompt Juno to find out why.
A few days after the lecture, Christine is found drowned in a nearby river, hung upside down in an upturned kayak. With unanswered questions, Juno attends the funeral, cleans out her friend's apartment and finds that Christine had not been totally honest with her during their short visit after the lecture.
Somehow, Christine had been in contact with Juno's estranged and mentally unstable husband who lives in a nearby institution. Juno also finds Eugenie's diary, with a couple of pages ripped out. Combined with more of Eugenie's diary notes, found by Juno in the crevices of the "Lady in the Window," Juno starts to piece together the events, which lead to possible murder
With a low-key narrative style that still keeps up a fast-paced rhythm, Goodman weaves together tales of tragic love and forgotten promises with the intrigue of art history and stained-glass art. Greek mythological metaphors and image-driven descriptions heighten the already complex and compelling story. Plot twists, dead-ends, shaky motives and a strong sense of humanity permeate this story, and make for an enlightening, sumptuous read.
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