Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Shadows on the Ivy

I am reading "Shadows on the Ivy" by Lea Wait. This is the third in the Maggie Summer "Antique Print" mysteries. The first two are "Shadows at the Fair" and "Shadows on the Coast of Maine".

Maggie Summer is a college history professor and also has an antique prints business called "Shadows". SOTI takes place at the community college where she teaches and involves the poisoning of two single mothers who live in a communal home on campus. The house is an experiment in allowing single parents to earn scholarships and have a place to live while they attend college. Of course, they must be 'students in need'.

I have read all three Shadow books. While Wait writes a good mystery, I find Maggie to be a little too needy. She is a young widow and while she seems to want a man in her life, she tends to keep any who are interested at arm's length. She also wants children so desperately that she is considering adopting as a single parent. Her agonizing and internalizing over this tends to get a little annoying. Having said that, I do recommend her books as an interesting read. Her descriptions of the antique prints are very informative and make me want to run out and find some to put in my house. And, as I said earlier, the mystery aspect is good.

I haven't quite finished SOTI so I hope I don't have to report a bad ending tomorrow. But from past readings of Wait's books, the conclusion should be logical and satisfying.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home