The Drowning People

May 31, 1999
This precocious debut novel by Mason, an undergrad at Oxford University, opens on a catchy note: a man confessing to the murder of his wife. As the basis for a spoken audio, this provides a creepy and convincing structure. Jarvis, a British actor with a distinguished career as an audio narrator, capitalizes spiritedly on the moody conceit. The story unfolds into a larger tale of a life lived among elite English society. James Farrell, an Oxfordian violinist, relates his story of passion and murder in stylized tones, rising to gothic flourish when the events get especially hot and heavy. He tells how, at age 22, he fell for the beautiful stranger Ella Harcourt. This was the unrequited love that would eventually destroy him--leading him to marry, then murder, her sister. Now, as an old man, he casts a coldly objective eye on the path that delivered him to his terrible destiny. Posing as high literature, this slyly low, hothouse novel of morals, manners and murder plays especially wicked and fun when read aloud. Based on the 1999 Warner hardcover.

January 1, 1999
Love between a musician and a beautiful aristocrat leads to murder. A hot debut from a 20-year-old student at Oxford.

April 15, 1999
Psychologically suspenseful and classy, Mason's first novel is an impressive achievement for any novice, especially a 20-year-old Oxford student. Mason begins his mesmerizing tale by having his protagonist, a 70-year-old violinist, James, state dispassionately that he has just murdered Sarah, his wife of 45 years. Determined to finally tell the truth about his charade of a life, James sequesters himself in the smallest room of what readers later learn is a castle and embarks on a long, involved recitation, set 50 years in the past. He describes his meteoric musical career and infatuation with a dangerously unhappy young woman named Ella. Locked in a malevolent rivalry with her cousin Sarah, Ella has stolen the young man Sarah desires and fully intends to marry him until she meets James. Rather than end her engagement neatly and cleanly, she indulges in yet more subterfuge, aided and abetted by her appallingly naive new lover, and the results are truly catastrophic. A precocious modern gothic storyteller, Mason follows the lead of Josephine Hart and Patrick McGrath. ((Reviewed April 15, 1999))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1999, American Library Association.)