Book Review - Maureen Johnson's The Hand on the Wall
The Hand on the Wall by Maureen Johnson
Published by: Katherine Tegen Books
Publication Date: January 21st, 2020
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy
Dr. Irene Fenton might have been onto something before her recent immolation. As the Ellingham expert and the author of Truly Devious: The Ellingham Murders her hunches shouldn't be taken with a grain of salt. She believed there was a codicil to Albert Ellingham's will that stipulated that whoever found his daughter Alice, alive or dead, would inherent a large fortune so long as they were not members of Ellingham Academy's school board or somehow involved in her disappearance. And while Call Me Charles, the head of Ellingham Academy, informs Stevie that the codicil does not exist let alone mention the sum of ten million dollars Stevie has to wonder; a codicil would account for the crime spree on campus and it's environs. Why else were Hayes Major, Ellie Walker, and Dr. Irene Fenton killed in freak accidents? No one who was alive when the crime was perpetrated back in the thirties is alive today. Even the likelihood of Alice being alive and well is slim to none. So it comes down to the oldest motive in the world, greed. Someone believes in the codicil and they are willing to kill for it. But Stevie's life is in free fall. Her possibly, maybe boyfriend David has gotten himself beaten up in an attempt to derail his father's presidential ambitions. Her friends are dead. And yet she can't waste any brainpower on anything that isn't the case. It is consuming her. Much as Ellingham Academy is about to be consumed by snow. This blizzard is a once in a century storm and while Ellingham Academy was built to withstand the rigors of a Vermont winter this one might be too much to handle. The school is being evacuated and, due to all the recent tragedies, it will not be welcoming the students back after the storm clears. Ellingham Academy is closing it's doors. But Stevie isn't going anywhere. The case is here so she has to be here. Which means she's staying behind. Which means all her friends along with Dr. Fenton's nephew Hunter are staying behind. They have a killer to catch, a mystery to solve, and a presidential campaign to derail. It might be a lot for anyone else, but for Stevie and her friends it's just another day at Ellingham Academy. It's time to gather the suspects and bring her best Agatha Christie game face. She's about to solve the crime of the century. And who knows, maybe get a codicil conquest...
While this does nicely tie together all the loose threads and captures all the red herrings that Maureen Johnson has tossed about over three books I can't help but feel this volume was a little too contrived. I mean, I know that this series is about a bunch of overachieving teens who solve true crimes and build Rube Goldberg machines for fun, so it's not exactly grounded in reality, but the whole convenience of the blizzard and their absurd hiding out to avoid detection leading up to the denouement felt more Scooby-Doo than Hercule Poirot. But now that I start to think about Scooby-Doo way more than I ever have before, isn't it basically the same setup of an Agatha Christie novel with the pulling off of the mask being the revealing of the culprit in just a cheesier manner? OK, I'm totally now spiraling and rethinking everything about my life with these thoughts, meaning, I've never felt closer to Stevie. I'm with you there girl. Let's spiral together. I mean, I'd accepted the Shakespearean nature of Scooby-Doo thanks to Eddie Izzard, but this is a whole new way of thinking. And maybe I just shouldn't dwell. Maybe I should embrace the Scooby-Doo quality and say that The Hand on the Wall felt a tad trite and that's what's getting me. Because a lot of this book really works and as someone who was watching Scooby-Doo since before she could walk despite never bothering to actually think about it's story structure Maureen Johnson did something unexpected. She surprised me. When I read murder mysteries I almost always figure it out. My mind is built for puzzles and I just put two and two together. Even when I don't figure it out when the killer is revealed I'm kind of like not surprised but accepting, like, oh, this makes sense so of course they are the killer. I knew from about two pages in that Albert Ellingham's right hand man George Marsh orchestrated the whole thing. It was obvious. And the reasoning behind this was I was sure that he was Alice's father and that he and Iris were having an affair. But here's where it got deliciously complicated. George was Alice's father. He just didn't know. What's more Iris wasn't Alice's mother. Flora Robinson was. Bait and switch and I love it! It also adds the wonderful twist that while Stevie figured out everything, down to Alice's parentage, she isn't eligible to get the reward from the codicil, which was real! Why? Because Alice's DNA doesn't match either Ellingham. Because, well, it wouldn't. Genius.
Post a Comment