Kate Weinberg’s first novel, The Truants, is being marketed as a mystery. It contains many of those mystery aspects: a suspicious death, some secrets from the Past that disrupt the Present, and a whole lot of lying. The narrator of The Truants is 19-year-old Jessica Walker. Jess, as she prefers to be called, attends East Anglia College solely to be in a class taught by charismatic Professor Lorna Clay. Dr. Clay’s course on Agatha Christie both binds the two major characters together, but also plants the seeds of the book’s puzzles. Jess is dating Nick, another student, when she finds herself strongly attracted to the boyfriend of her roommate, Georgie. Dr. Clay advises Jess to “think about triangles.” Could this be an allusion to The ABC Murders or something else? Instead of triangles, Jess thinks about sex.
It takes until page 130 for a death to show up, but then more deaths–Past and Present–complicate the plot until the oblique conclusion. Many of Agatha Christie’s mysteries were full of repellent characters, but there was always Miss Marple and Poirot to deliver Morality and Justice. The conclusion of The Truants just left me flat. GRADE: C
I guess I won’t be reading this. Doesn’t sound interesting at all. This is a different cover than the one I’ve seen at B&N. That one has a horse on it.
Steve, characters have sex in the hearse on the cover of THE TRUANTS of this edition. In fact, THE TRUANTS is being marketed as “Agatha Christie…with sex.”
I’ll stick with Christie originals, thanks.
/However—as an aside—I’m currently reading THE SUN DOWN MOTEL by Simone St. James and it’s all sorts of shivery, understated horror.
Deb, I’ll have to look into THE SUN DOWN MOTEL. I sometimes enjoy shivery, understated horror.
I read a much more favorable review of this somewhere, but even that one didn’t tempt me to read this, so I’ll pass. I just read a fairly entertaining novel called “Eight Perfect Murders” by Peter Swanson in which Christie’s “The ABC Murders” figures along with several other classic mystery novels.
Michael, several writers seem to be channelling Agatha Christie. Peter Swanson and Kate Weinberg and Ruth Ware all name Christie as an “influence.”
I got an arc of 8 perf. murders at Bouchercon. It suffered from airplane book syndrome, which is not picking up a book again if I don’t finish it on the plane. I heard that the book is full of spoilers for the books it mentions
Maggie, like you I hate spoilers. THE TRUANT mentions several Christie mysteries and gives away whodunit. Fortunately, I’d read all the Christie’s referred to in THE TRUANTS, but it still annoyed me.
So, instead of Poirot we get a 19 year old girl?
Pass here too.
Jeff, Marilyn Stasio’s review of THE TRUANTS on Sunday in the New York TIMES BOOK REVIEW was positive. Imagine Poirot as a sexually active 19-year-old and you grasp the gimmick behind this mystery.
The author looks like a cut rate Barbra Streisand! The book hold no interest for me, but you knew that!
Bob, I figured you might react this way to THE TRUANTS. I was underwhelmed.