Book Review: The Mad, Mad Murders of Marigold Way

The Mad, Mad Murders of Marigold Way: A Novel. Raymond Benson, Beaufort Books, 4 October 2022, Paperback, eBook, and Audiobook, 352 pages.

Reviewed by Dennis Hetzel.

In The Mad, Mad Murders of Marigold Way, the stuff you want in a good mystery emerges right away. It starts in an idyllic suburban Chicago setting with the strange disappearances of a man and woman who live across the street from one another, both in troubled marriages. You'll meet a pyro-troubled teen, his conscience-stricken buddy and his buddy's quirky, bullied friend, all mixed with the stress of a shadowy criminal element. 

Amidst all that, everyone is navigating their messy lives in the midst of COVID isolation. Remember how scary it was in those early days? It's easy to forget.

Finally, as a bonus for those of us who grew up in the suburbs in Chicago or elsewhere, you probably will relate to how well the tale does of capturing life in those superficially sterile worlds.

Veteran author Raymond Benson knits all these threads together. The result is a compelling, interesting, and unusual journey that will keep you turning pages. (More on what I mean by unusual will follow soon, and you'll learn why this offhand comment is very much in the spirit of the book.)

The focal point of the story is Scott Hatcher. He's a self-absorbed author who hasn't written a successful book for some time, and his wife, Marie, has become the primary wage earner. Their marriage is failing for several reasons and they're living in what amounts to a passive-aggressive detente as the COVID pandemic starts raging.

Then Marie disappears. So does their neighbor, John Bergman, whose company just experienced a suspicious theft of hard-to-find PPE (personal protective equipment) and other pandemic supplies. Remember those hunts for decent masks and hand sanitizer?

You probably see where some of this is going. Yes, Marie and John appear to have a secret relationship, which is made obvious when their charred bodies are found together inside a fire-ravaged house that also includes remnants of the stolen PPE. Is it murder or murder-suicide? What's the role of the troubled teens? Marie also was the listing Realtor, and that prompts a sketchy guy named Volkov, who claims an interest in the house, to start showing up, demanding information that Scott doesn't have. 

These mysteries propel the story, often through the eyes of Scott as he develops a relationship with Bergman's widow, Rachel, and her son. And, yes, the police will quickly begin to wonder if Scott and Rachel know more than they're saying. 

Now, let's get to the "unusual" part. Let me quote directly from the book's publicity blurb: "The author adapts an unusual style by introducing each chapter in the first-person persona of himself, the writer, telling us he took the idea from the famous direct-to-the-audience narration in Thornton Wilder's iconic play, Our Town."

Does it work? A little bit of wry, ironic humor goes a long way, at least with me. Especially when the author is chuckling about not telling you things; sort of like the guy who laughs too much at his own wittiness at a party. After the first few chapters, the introductions seem unnecessary and become speed bumps that break the mood and delay your desire to start the next chapter. And it definitely is a good story, so there's really no reason to slow us down. 

I felt that the approach would work better with more refinement, same goes for the sections where the dialogue seemed flat and unnatural. Other readers might think these are non-issues, but, as Benson's narrator might say, "I'm the critic here."

Without being a spoiler, I'd add that the Our Town technique becomes important in the latter chapters. And Benson's change of narrative focus in the late chapters skillfully takes us to a climax that might be predictable in a who-dun-it sense but will keep you reflecting on the life and character of Scott Hatcher long after you close the cover.