The Corpse with the Silver Tongue

When I reviewed And the Mountains Echoed a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that author Khaled Hosseini was a headline speaker at a conference I was attending. I did not mention that the conference was a kind of heaven for bibliophiles and that the exhibit hall was populated with publishers eagerly offering complimentary copies of their latest titles (and in more than a few cases advance copies of books to be published later this year). The Corpse with the Silver Tongue is one of the complimentary titles I picked up, with a promise to the publisher that I would post a review to a website of my choosing.

So...

Somewhat in the style of Agatha Christie, our detective, Cait Morgan - who is really a criminologist rather than a pure detective - happens to be in the south of France when an old acquaintance (a smooth talking former ad man whom Cait used to work for and now loathes) drops dead at the dinner table. As with many good mysteries, and this is a fine one, one death is never enough. Cait is then plunged headlong into the mystery surrounding an ancient Roman necklace that disappears almost exactly at the moment its owner meets his maker. Thus the crimes, suspense, and story all build.

The strongest aspect of this novel is the plot. At its height, it's a gripping page turner, the outcome of which will not wait to be known. (I read more than one chapter from the backseat of a rush hour cab...and I'm normally prone to motion sickness!) In this way, it's similar to Once We Were Brothers (the two mysteries also share a connection to World War II history) or Bury Your Dead. On the whole, however, I enjoyed Corpse less than either of those books. The reason is Cait Morgan. I found our criminologist/detective to be overly present, to the point of distracting from the story. This is especially true where the reader is privy to her private thoughts (such as the incessant refrain that she must lose weight or quit smoking - but probably won't). Worse is Ace's over-reliance on italics to emphasize a word a point. On certain pages I couldn't help but count the number of italicized words, to the point of needing to go back and re-read the page to focus on what I'd missed with all my counting!

Worse than either of these faults - and the first one, especially, is not so different from some of the faults I identified with Once We Were Brothers - is Cait's naivete, nay recklessness, at a key moment in the story. At that moment, she lost all credibility with me as either a criminologist or a detective and my patience - and interest - waned.

The Corpse with the Silver Tongue is author Cathy Ace's debut novel. The actual mystery, as I said, was good. Perhaps like a fine wine, Ace will also grow better with age.