Cakewalk

Southern girls gone mild figure in Brown's nostalgic paean to a town bifurcated by the Mason-Dixon Line.A prefatory author's note issues a disclaimer: "This is not a plot-driven book." But what readers, particularly of Brown's various mystery series, may not be expecting is that the book is also not driven by suspense or conflict. Instead, it portrays more or less happy people leading uneventful and in some cases exceedingly prosperous lives in 1920. Celeste, the protagonist, is a wealthy heiress, gorgeous, bisexual, and vaguely uncomfortable with her enforced leisure since her father left the stewardship of the family industries to her brothers. With her only partially mixed blessing, her brother Curtis has just married her longtime lover, Ramelle, who is pregnant with his child. The story, such as it is, revolves around a half-year in the lives of Celeste, her friends, and retainers in the town of Runnymede, situated on the Pennsylvania/Maryland border. Celeste falls in love with Ben, a baseball player who's a World War I veteran and an aspiring stained-glass artist. She sets about making his life better without overtly appearing to be his benefactor and wounding his male pride. Her housekeeper and cook, Cora, has two daughters, Louise and Julia, who provide the closest thing to entertainment this novel offers with their crushes and teenage rivalries, including a long-standing spat with a classmate, Dimps Jr., whose main offense seems to be large breasts. Celeste comes to the aid of her older sister, Carlotta, who runs a Catholic school, when a fire breaks out, threatening to expose a major source of the school's and Carlotta's income: a cellarful of bootleg liquor. (Prohibition has just descended on Runnymede's recalcitrant citizens.) Apparently both a prequel to and recap of her other Runnymede novels (e.g. Loose Lips, 1999, Six of One, 1978, etc.), this outing serves up unremitting dollops of niceness.Happy families, alike or not, do not electrifying fiction make. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 1, 2016

Brown's most beloved characters, the irrepressible Hunsenmeir sisters Louise (Wheezie) and Julia (Juts), are back, this time as teenagers. In the fictitious town of Runnymede, on the Maryland-Pennsylvania (and Mason-Dixon) line, it's early 1920, Prohibition is sensibly ignored, and women's suffrage is considered unlikely to be ratified. Despite their sisterly squabbling, Wheezie and Juts are joined in animosity against the Rhodes girls, Lottie and Delilah Jr. (who rouges her nipples!). Much of this leisurely story concerns the older women who shape the sisters, especially their mother, Cora, and her employer and friend, the elegant and wealthy Celeste Chalfont. The Chalfont household is preparing for the wedding of Celeste's brother Curtis, who has impregnated Celeste's longtime lover, Ramelle, and Celeste is devising a plan to include the mistress of her other brother, Stirling, whose wife will not be attending the ceremony. (Such extramarital activity appears well tolerated when conducted discreetly by a certain class.) VERDICT Brown has said that the Runnymede novels, starting with Six of One, are the ones she was born to write, as they reflect her birthplace and family. This is more loving domestic comedy of small-town life when times were simpler. Recommended for fans of Brown and beyond. [See Prepub Alert, 4/25/16.]--Michele Leber, Arlington, VA

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