Thale's Folly

March 1, 1999
Sowing her pages with quotations from Renaissance herbals, Gilman (author of the Mrs. Pollifax mysteries) cultivates a quaint (and not overly sophisticated) novel of romantic suspense. When eccentric Harriet Thales died, her farmhouse in Western Massachusetts--called Thale's Folly--was inherited by her corporate shark nephew, who now resents the bundle of money he's been paying in taxes. He sends his son, Andrew, whose failed writing career has relegated him to a back office hack job at his father's company, to check out the old place. Andrew finds that the purportedly empty house is home to an enchanting group of squatters: a six-foot spinster who begins a new short story every day; a sharp-eyed practitioner of Wiccan magic; a Marxist Luddite; and a 19-year old waif named Tarragon. The waif, of course, fascinates Andrew the most. Snoopers and would-be murderers add an element of suspense as the fate of Thale's Folly is determined and Aunt Harriet's peculiar legacy is revealed. Gilman relies too heavily on her characters' idiosyncrasies to do the work of characterization for her, but her fans will probably enjoy being gently propelled on a pleasant narrative track.

November 1, 1998
The creator of the Mrs. Pollifax mysteries introduces a new protagonist--a struggling young novelist whose father asks him to investigate the family property left when Aunt Harriet died. There he finds a bunch of squatters and gets drawn into a mystery.

December 1, 1998
When Andrew Thale visits "Thale's Folly," his deceased Aunt Harriet's homestead in Massachuset's Berkshires, he is living a life of quiet desperation. A stalled novelist, the 26-year-old is surveying the supposedly vacant Folly for his father, Horace, a hard-driving businessman. In fact, four of Harriet's friends live in the house. A car accident strands Andrew there, but he stays on, lulled by the summer, beguiled by the inhabitants, and intrigued by mysteries on the property. In contrast to Gilman's Mrs. Polifax mysteries, this delightful book is a novel with a mystery as well as information on herbal lore. At first, it seems Gilman is rounding up the usual literary suspects, but her genial and well-paced writing, vivid landscapes, and quirky characters are greater than the sum of the cliches. This highly recommended book would appeal to those who like Winifred Elze's "Changeling Garden" (1995), Susan Wittig Albert's China Bayles series, or anyone wanting a suspenseful romp with little violence. ((Reviewed December 1, 1998))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1998, American Library Association.)