E.B. Boatner Minneapolis Book Launch
Ethan (E.B.) Boatner (’63) will be reading from his psychological thriller, M-o-t-h-e-r Spells Murder, at Magers and Quinn Booksellers, 3038 Hennepin Avenue S., Minneapolis, on Wednesday, February 13, at 7:30 PM.
For nearly twenty-four hours, unheard and unseen – the embedded killer rests, takes meals, bathes – close enough to his prey to sense their heartbeats. Imagining one’s own castle so appropriated heightens reader tension and ups the suspense ante.
Toxic mothers, metastasizing family secrets, the ambience and twisted byways of Boston will resonate with mystery buffs. M-o-t-h-e-r Spells Murder replaces the standard thriller’s centrifugal motion–chases, escapes–for the centripetal, pulling inward in relentless circles until the players and the reader are confined under one roof.
Aficionados of Ruth Rendell’s dark obsessions, P.D. James’s karma-laden plots, and Robert Parker’s tough tenderness will also enjoy M-o-t-h-e-r- Spells Murder.
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Gwendolyn MacGowan escaped her dysfunctional parents and their Atlanta social whirl years ago, entering college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, then forging an independent life with her framing shop and huge Victorian "castle" in nearby Jamaica Plain. Finally at peace, she has no idea that her comfortable world will be shattered.
The moment her father dies, Gwendolyn's headstrong mother, Elinor, moves to Boston to "live with my beloved Gwennie." Gwendolyn refuses, insisting Elinor move into a nearby senior residence. There, Elinor is brutally murdered at the hands of an unknown assailant. Still reeling from her mother's death, Gwendolyn is astonished to learn that Monica Colwell, her father's former mistress, has arrived in town from England with her teenage son, Eric.
Eric disappears and Monica's throat is slashed as she sits on Gwendolyn's patio. The safe castle has been breached, and Gwendolyn realizes that unless she discovers the secrets buried deep in Elinor's past, she will be the next to die.