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April 3
Hardback
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The Whole Truth
by Nancy Pickard
Discussion
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Reviewed by Jeanne M. Jacobson
It's become almost customary for mysteries to be structured with contrasting
chapters, shifting back and forth between time past and time present, or
between the perspectives of villain and sleuth. Nancy Pickard has devised a
brilliant variant. Her protagonist, a writer named Marie Lightfoot, is a true
crime author in the style of Ann Rule, and chapters from a book Lightfoot is
writing -- working title: The Little Mermaid -- are embedded in the overall
mystery narrative.
Pickard's mystery is so absorbing that a first-time reading is likely to miss
some features of its elegant pattern. Chapter 1, titled "Raymond," is set in
a Florida courtroom at the end of a ten day trial, as Judge Edyth Flasschoen,
lawyers, deputies, spectators, and the grieving father of little Natalie Mae
McCullen, watch Raymond Raintree as the jury files in to give its verdict. If
ever a chapter ended with a bang, it's this one. This is followed by Chapter
One of The Little Mermaid: setting, discovery of the body, arrival of the
crime unit, notification of the family. Chapter 2, again titled "Raymond,"
begins within a heartbeat of the ending of Chapter 1. Interpolated within the
book's twelve Raymond chapters are ten chapters from The Little Mermaid. That
The Whole Truth has two parts is evident only toward the end: there is no
indication of a "first part," but there is a Part 2, whose title page
introduces a new name.
Flawless plotting explains why Natalie, a sensible, cheerful, obedient child,
went willingly with a stranger to her death, and eventually even makes sense
of the weird combination of admission and denial when her killer is
questioned by the police: "She was only with you?" "Uh-huh." "But you didn't
kill her?" "Huh-uh."... "The last time you saw her, Ray, was she alive?"
"Uh-huh." "She was alive? You mean... she was still breathing?" Ray shook his
head: No.
One of the most memorable aspects of the book is the paired picture of two
bereaved mothers: one coping with the crushing realization of her child's
death, and another who organizes her life and her family's lives so that her
child, returning, would find everything -- including herself -- familiar
and untouched by time.
Ignore the blurb that attempts to lure readers by suggesting the book is a
reprise of The Silence of the Lambs and the criminal a Hannibal Lecter
look-alike. It isn't; they aren't. While those who choose the book for this
reason certainly won't find the story too pale, prospective readers who
aren't Silence of the Lamb groupies should not be put off by it. Pickard's
newest mystery is uniquely terrifying.
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