Sun 16 May 2010
Archived Review: JOYCE HARRINGTON – No One Knows My Name.
Posted by Steve under Authors , Reviews[3] Comments
JOYCE HARRINGTON – No One Knows My Name. Avon, paperback reprint, December 1981. Hardcover edition: St. Martin’s, 1980.
An alternative title might have been Death Comes to Duck Lake, a small former fishing community up near Traverse City, Michigan — my kind of country. I know it well.
On the other hand, I can see where actor- and actressy-types from Hollywood and New York City — whether budding ones or those over the hill — might think of Duck Lake as the ultimate of boondocks. Still, when the repertory company for the hamlet’s summer playhouse makes them the only job offer they can get, somehow it has to start looking not quite so bad, after all.
But one of this year’s company is a compulsive murderer, willing to kill to keep anyone else from the inevitable disappointments that will occur by choosing one of the most fickle careers of them all — show business.
Except for the fact that there is no one here to fill the role of the eccentric detective character, this is truly a classic harkening back to the Golden Age of Mysteries. If there aren’t an overabundance of physical clues, there are lots of hidden secrets and ominous hints and lots of suspects busily mucking up the evidence.
The end, as an aging actor makes a tragically wrong decision, is a deeply chilling one. Indeed, in its way, it’s a completely perfect one.
slightly revised.
Editorial Comments: It took this review to bring back memories of this fine, well-written novel, but I’ve never completely forgotten it. In terms of a letter grade, I gave this one an “A” at the time.
Joyce Harrington wrote only three novels. This was the first, but she’d been writing short stories for Ellery Queen and others since 1972. Her first story “The Purple Shroud” (EQMM, Sept ’72) won an Edgar, and her shorter works were invariably in the “Best of the Year” annuals from then on through the 1980s.
May 16th, 2010 at 6:48 pm
I never read Harrington’s novels. but too many of her short stories to count. Nice to hear she brought some of the same qualities to her novel length fiction her shorts possessed.
May 17th, 2010 at 2:38 am
I read a few of her short stories, but not enough to say anything more about them in my comments above. I seem to remember them as psychological crime dramas, but I could be wrong about that.
If they were humorous cozies, though, I’d be surprised — but I’ve been surprised before.
Her other two novels were FAMILY REUNION (1982) and DREEMZ OF THE NIGHT (1987). I may have read the second one, but with a title like the third one, I’m sure I’d know whether I had or not, and I haven’t. In fact I don’t remember ever seeing one, much less own one.
I assume she’s pretty much forgotten today, given that her career was pretty much restricted to short fiction, which gets read a lot less often than novels do, nor did she ever have continuing characters in any of her work.
May 17th, 2010 at 3:55 am
Not having read the novels I can’t compare them to the stories, but from the review she seems to have brought the same good writing to both. The stories, at least the ones I recall, are mostly psychological suspense, but uniformly well written.
She was never a favorite, but I did always read her new story.