Sue Henry is the award-winning author of “Death Trap.” Whenever I see that someone has won an award, I am interested to see what they have written, so, “Death Trap” being unavailable, I picked up “The Serpents Trail,” which features a retired lady named Maxine McNabb.
Maxie, as she is known to her friends, owns a Winnebago and enjoys taking long road trips with her Dachshund doggy Stretch. With a rifle tucked securely away in a secret panel, she’s not intimidated by the fact that she’s alone; in fact, she relishes it.
In this adventure, she has left her home in Alaska at the behest of Sarah, an old college friend, who has asked her to come for a visit in Colorado. There’s something of great importance she needs to tell Maxie, and she can’t do it on the phone. It takes Maxie a few days to make the journey down to Sarah’s house, and by the time she gets there, Sarah is in the hospital and her house has been ransacked.
At this point I’m a little unsure how to proceed with the review. I found that the book moved very slowly, but you may be the type of reader who enjoys taking your time. I found that there was a great deal of inner dialogue, but you may like inner dialogue. I felt that the mystery was not revealed quickly enough, or was complex enough, but you might like that.
What I will do is point out the book’s strengths. Maxie is a very likeable heroine. The book is clean, with the exception of a couple of mild swear words uttered by only one of the characters. The writing is beautiful – the descriptions of the countryside are well done. It was fun to discover that the family history library in Salt Lake City, Utah, played into the story, as I’m only 40 miles from that library and know the area quite well.
So if you’re in the mood for a book that takes you on a thoughtful journey, you may enjoy this novel. If you’re the type who prefers your mysteries to keep you on the edge of your seat, this won’t be the book for you.
(This book was published in 2004 by Penguin Books.)
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The Books of Lilian Jackson Braun