False Mermaid, Erin Hart, Scribner, $26.00.
It's been a good while since the debut of Hart's first book, Haunted Ground (2003 to be exact) and it was the kind of accomplished and nuanced first novel that garnered a lot of well deserved attention. Her main character, Nora Gavin, a pathologist, is an interesting, flawed person with a good and solid backstory. Like all the best characters in novels, encountering Nora in the first book is to encounter her whole. She seems to already exist as a complete person, and as a reader, you have merely joined in her life as the book begins.
In this latest outing, Hart does one of my very favorite things: she has Nora deal with a death that's emotionally meaningful to her as a character. In this case it's the five year old murder of her sister, Triona. It's a case that's still officially unsolved, though Nora's sure that Triona's husband, Peter, is the culprit. Nora makes the trip back home to Minnesota from Ireland, leaving behind her boyfriend (for want of a better word) Cormac McGuire. Hart does a more than masterful job of tying together the separate family issues that Nora and Cormac are both dealing with.
One of her methods of tying things together is the use of metaphor and folklore—back in Ireland, Cormac has encountered a folklore expert who's researching "selkie" myths. A selkie is a seal who sheds her sealskin and comes on land to live as a human wife to a human husband. Only if the sealskin can be found and recovered is the woman able to return to the sea. Back in the States, the 11 year old daughter Triona left behind has a true affinity for a seal; and one of the physical clues is a plant called "false mermaid". The metaphors are lovely, they're integrated into the plot, and they add real resonance to the whole book.
Nora has come back to parents who are slightly estranged from her—Triona's death has torn apart the family. Her dead sister's husband, Peter, and his daughter are in the process of moving back to Minnesota for Peter's re-marriage. As the family collides so does Nora's intense scrutiny of the case, a scrutiny aided by the somewhat lovesick cop who helped her the first time around, Frank Cordova.
Hart's writing is similar to Elizabeth George's, P.D. James' and Deborah Crombie's. Heady company—all of these women write the same kind of detailed psychological studies combined with compelling narrative. The time away seems to have matured Hart even more as a writer, as this is to me her best book. I could not put it down. The ultimate compliment to her is that when I met her at a Bouchercon a few years ago, I was waiting in line to get my book signed. Right behind me was a fellow fan—Deborah Crombie.
The resolution involves a devastating psychological explication of the characters involved—it's disturbing, well thought out, and absolutely compelling. This is definitely one of the best books of the year. Starting with this one won't be confusing as Nora more or less gets a fresh start by going back home to Minnesota, though the book ends back in Ireland. I wish I were starting it all over again.
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