Peter Straub's book ""Mystery,"" recently reprinted by Vintage & Anchor Books, lives up to its name. It creates a mysterious and curious world full of secrets, twists and turns, making readers wonder what will happen next.
After Tom Pasmore survives a nearly fatal accident, he becomes fascinated with murder mysteries during his long recovery, thanks to the influence of his amateur detective neighbor, Lamont von Heilitz.
Tom and Lamont pair up to solve a past murder case that is somehow connected to the entire wealthy and powerful community of Mill Walk, which is their tiny hometown on a Caribbean island.
The book starts slowly while introducing the many central characters, but it picks up quickly and keeps that momentum going.
One small drawback is the large number of characters who, even though their parts in the mystery appear to be small, still play a significant role in the story and it can sometimes be difficult to remember who is who.
Like any mystery story, the reader needs to pay attention to the smallest of details and remember names that may have just been mentioned chapters ago in passing. Each character is specifically intertwined with a past event, which shows Straub's great planning and creative thinking.
Straub also takes great care in making the world within the story as real as possible, including incredible details describing the characters' surroundings. This makes it easy for the reader to imagine exactly where each character is standing in almost every moment, especially when a great discovery is made.
What makes this mystery novel unique is that it does not have just one plotline. Straub makes multiple plotlines from smaller, past mysteries that come together and converge to form one major conspiracy.
This gives the reader more than one plotline of mystery to ponder, but also means that the he or she must pay closer attention and keep each mystery clearly straight in his or her mind.
For any mystery lover, this book is a definite read, but it can be confusing for anyone who is not used to reading works in the genre. Just remember to pay attention, suspect everyone, do your research, and of course, enjoy solving this engaging mystery (though no magnifying glass or cloak required).
