The Gallagher Place
In Julie Doar’s thrilling novel The Gallagher Place, a murder on a family’s estate reveals long-buried secrets.
On a walk with her brothers, Nate and Henry, Marlowe discovers a dead body on her family’s land. The discovery is unpleasant enough, but when the investigation reveals a link with her best friend Nora’s disappearance twenty years ago, the situation takes an even more sinister turn. All of a sudden, Marlowe doesn’t know who to trust.
With the murder investigation encompassing a couple of weeks, the novel moves at a ruminative, measured pace through its limited number of events. Its tension is heightened by chapters set in the past, through which Nora’s vivid presence casts a greater pall on her continued absence in Marlowe’s present. The prose is lyrical and moody, lingering on descriptions of nature and the settings to set the mood:
The field and the orchard were surrounded by the woods, carved up by old footpaths and loosely mortared stone walls—a perfect playground orbiting the warm sun of the Gray House.
The flashback chapters prove to be of crucial importance to Nora’s characterization, filling in the blanks in the memories of those left behind. Indeed, the book’s treatment of the past is tantalizing. Interest is generated by accounts of pranks played on elderly neighbors, and dark consequences are implied for youthful deeds. Marlowe is a more subdued heroine, but her hidden depths are revealed as the book continues and moves toward its shocking conclusion.
A character-driven mystery novel, The Gallagher Place is about the cost of keeping secrets, even in the name of personal ambition or one’s family.
Reviewed by
Carolina Ciucci
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