Fri 18 Feb 2022
A Mystery Review by LJ Roberts: JANE HADDAM – Not a Creature Was Stirring.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[9] Comments
Reviews by L. J. Roberts
JANE HADDAM – Not a Creature Was Stirring. Gregor Demarkian #1. Bantam, paperback original, 1990. Doubleday, hardcover, 1993.
First Sentence: “Listen,” Myra said, as soon as the phone was picked up, without waiting to find out who had answered it.
Gregor Demarkian, a retired profiler for the FBI “…the most Irish Catholic organization in the U.S. government” is asked for a special favor by his good friend, Father Tibor. Philadelphia Main Line millionaire Robert Hannaford has offered the priest $100,000 for his crumbling church if Gregor will have Christmas dinner at “Engine House,” the Hannaford estate.
What Gregor finds is a house with every inch decorated for Christmas; a group of siblings who don’t like themselves or one another, some of whom are in financial and or legal trouble, and a matriarch crippled with Muscular Sclerosis who never leaves her room. Shortly after arriving, Hanniford is found in his den where a marble bust accidentally fell, killing him. Was it an accident? Gregor doesn’t think so.
Haddam’s voice is one that captivates. With a heading of “PART ONE SUNDAY, DECEMBER 18-SATURDAY DECEMBER 24 THE FIRST MURDER,” it’s clear there’s an interesting story ahead. And it is nice that a floor plan of the house is included at the beginning of the book. The story is filled with subtle, often dialogue-driven humor. There is a cynicism and sharpness to her voice that causes frequent chuckles— “No intelligent psychopath had to murder a dozen little old ladies to get his kicks. He would wreak far more havoc by going into government work.”
After that, it is the character of Gregor and his friend Father Tibor who are the hook. We learn of Gregor’s past and about life within an Armenian community. As for the family/victims, they are a mess. It is hard to work up a whole lot of sympathy for them. It makes one glad to not be wealthy, or at least, overly entitled.
As for the plot, in the end, aren’t all motives really quite basic? The family Gregor is investigating is filled with unpleasant characters, and none more so than the father. As the investigation proceeds, it is understandable why he was murdered.
One point of interest is that each of Haddam’s 30 books, is set against the background of a holiday. This somehow truly fits with her sense of humor.
Not a Creature was Stirring is a familial version of Agatha Christie’s And Then There None. It has a strange, obscure plot of even stranger, mainly unsympathetic people other than those surrounding Gregor. However, what it really has is a delightful voice, eminently quotable lines, and a lot of smoking: one forgets how prevalent smoking was in 1990.
This was one of those books where you feel as though you should have figured it out, but didn’t. It’s also a book that makes one really want to continue the series.
Rating: Good.
February 18th, 2022 at 11:23 pm
Sorry to say, because I know she was popular, I could never get into a Haddam novel. I tried several over the years and just could not get into them.
I’m willing to admit it is me, but there it is, she’s a fairly major voice of her time I just could not read.
February 18th, 2022 at 11:40 pm
I enjoyed her books, the ones I read, but I never quite felt I was in sync with them. It’s difficult to put into words, especially without going back to see what I said about them at the time. It may be that over time I found her plots weaker than the effort she put into developing her characters. There was quite a large cast of them.
February 19th, 2022 at 8:49 am
Here’s a review by Barry Gardner about another one in the series:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=44060
February 19th, 2022 at 8:53 am
And here’s the link to a post in which I responded to Jane Haddam after she expressed some displeasure with a review I wrote about one of her books. It’s followed by some 28 comments, which meant a lot of people had a lot of opinions to add to the interchange:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=2068
February 19th, 2022 at 9:19 am
I’m afraid I have to agree with David. I tried this one several times but could just not get interested. I can’t explain why, but there it is.
February 19th, 2022 at 11:40 am
A few points of possible interest:
– So far, nobody’s mentioned that Jane Haddam (aka Orania Papazoglou) was married to William DeAndrea, whose style and approach were totally different (but no less compelling for that).
As it happened, Haddam’s major success came mostly after DeAndrea’s early death, but that was probably coincidence.
– Also, Haddam dropped the “holiday” angle about halfway through the Demarkian run (it had been imposed on her by her original publisher).
– Personally, I learned early on that Jane Haddam wrote a denser, more detailed kind of mystery than did Bill DeAndrea; as often happens when I go from one writer to another, I adjusted as I read, and it worked out just fine for me.
February 19th, 2022 at 12:39 pm
Points all well taken, Mike. Thanks!
February 19th, 2022 at 1:14 pm
What a fascinating conversation, including those from past posts. Unfortunately, I haven’t gone back to read more of Haddam’s books. It’s hard enough keeping up with all the new books I’m sent to review. But now, I’m more curious than ever.
February 20th, 2022 at 7:15 pm
While her work is far from “Cozy” they have in common with cozies they are driven by characters and not plot, and if the characters don’t particularly gel with the reader…
I like DeAndrea better, but sometimes more as a gadfly than a writer.
They were both major figures to be largely forgotten today.