Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Putnam Adult (2004), 400 pages
Description
Snow Falling on Cedars meets The Shipping News in this enthralling literary crime novel set in post World War II Long Island. In the small town of Amagansett, perched on Long Island's windswept coast, generations have followed the same calling as their forefathers, fishing the dangerous Atlantic waters. Little has changed in the three centuries since white settlers drove the Montaukett Indians from the land. But for Conrad Labarde, a second-generation Basque immigrant recently returned from the Second World War, and his fellow fisherman Rollo Kemp, this stability is shattered when a beautiful New York socialite turns up dead in their nets. On the face of it, her death was accidental, but deputy police chief Tom Hollis -- an incomer from New York -- is convinced the truth lies in the intricate histories and family secrets of Amagansett's inhabitants. Meanwhile the enigmatic Labarde is pursuing his own investigation. In unravelling the mystery, this haunting and evocative novel captures a community whose way of life is disappearing, its demise hastened by war in Europe and the incursions of wealthy city dwellers in search of a playground.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member jwarner6
Loner fisherman from Long Island fishing community nets the dead body of local debutant. Both he and Deputy Police Chief investigate this as murder rather than drowning. Novelist very effective in rolling out the story and how woman found herself in the ocean.
LibraryThing member BCCJillster
excellent sense of place and descriptions of local fishermen. A mix of mystery and Fitzgerald's East Egg.
LibraryThing member bookappeal
If you like detailed scenery and/or the Hamptons, you might enjoy this book more than I did. I skimmed the description to get to the plot, which was very good. I wish the author spent more time on character development than setting. Even the character we learn most about - Conrad - still feels
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distant by the end of the novel. The time sequence of the storyline jumps all over and there are three female characters with names beginning with "L" - confusing! Show Less
LibraryThing member sarazet
Enjoyable. Lies, secrets, affairs, murder and class conflict in a post-World War II New England summer town. Recommended by People magazine and seems to have gained popular appeal based on that.
LibraryThing member samsheep
I'd read the Savage Garden (his 2nd book) already and didn't find it that good but this one is great - completely different! A wonderfully detailed, immersive description of life on Long Island and a great set of characters. It's one of those books that you don't want to end as I enjoyed living in
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it's world. It would make a great quality holiday read. Show Less
LibraryThing member brainella
I tried reading this book twice, but could never get past the first 50 pages. It is boring. The story rambles on and on about the landscape and the backdrop and fishing. If the writing cannot grab me in the first fifty pages, I don't bother. I don't want to have to wade through the writing to get
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to a plot. I gave it two stars because I feel guilty that I could not finish it. Show Less
LibraryThing member cameling
2 fishermen out at sea find a dead woman in their nets off Long Island Sound. Although deemed to be a suicide, something just doesn't feel right to local policeman, Tom Hollis and he starts to ask around for more information about this woman, who, as it turns out, is the daughter of a wealthy
Secrets abound and are unraveled as the guilty try to cover tracks and stay one step or more ahead of getting caught.
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tycoon. At the same time, one of the fishermen decides to investigate her death on his own.Secrets abound and are unraveled as the guilty try to cover tracks and stay one step or more ahead of getting caught.
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LibraryThing member mnlohman
Poor fisherman and rich socialite fall in love. Best quote, " The thing about the Italians is, they've seen civilizations rise and fall and they know it's all crap."
LibraryThing member auntmarge64
A mystery set in 1947 on the far eastern shore of Long Island (NY), where the worlds of centuries-old local fishing families and very rich newcomers cross after a body washes ashore one morning. The main characters are a fisherman newly returned from the war in Europe and a detective recently
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relocated from New York City. Each is convinced the woman who drowned was murdered, although the fisherman, a settled-down Jack Reacher-type, has more motivation for thinking so and more success at piecing together what happened to her. Lots of local color and fishing lore, and a satisfying mystery. Show Less
LibraryThing member julie10reads
Kind of a "livre noir" murder mystery set in the late 1940s. Above average writing and complex characters made this story hard to put down.
LibraryThing member Moriquen
I was a tad bit reluctant to start this book, because I didn't really know what to think of it. But I liked it in the end anyway. The story builds up very slowly, but that didn't annoy me at all. Actually it kind of reminded me of the old Inspector Frost series that I used to watch together with my
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grandmother. Once I had passed the halfway mark of the book I did start to want a bit more information about the crime, of which you don't even know it is a crime just yet. I liked it, though I didn't love it. It was a pleasurable book and that's just fine with me. Show Less
LibraryThing member Condorena
One fine day in July 1947 Conrad Labarde a Basque fisherman and his partner Rollo are hauling in their net and the familiar twitch of the line is absent, and where are the pulls and tugs against the twine, or a flicker of a surface break? They both know that they have an inert load beneath the
The setting for this mystery is the south fork of Long Island at Amagansett near East Hampton not far from the most eastern part of New York, Montauk Point. This is a community that has been settled over the centuries by fishermen of all kinds and all nationalities. From early days this was a perfect spot for capturing the right whale, which swam in these cold Atlantic waters, and yet it was a great breeding ground for smaller sea life like scallops and oysters. The gatherers of this kind of food were called Bonackers.
Montauk folk were initially the Montaukett Indians but Norwegians, Finns, Spaniards, Danes, Dutch and Portuguese joined them for the fishing. The Italians came for the building of the Long Island Railroad and the Irish just came. The whalers had distain for the Bonackers who harvested mainly small stuff such as clams, scallops and oysters, the early settlers looked down on all new comers and worst of all they were all considered invisible and of no account to the Gatsbian types who left the city to build summer homes in the Hamptons.
In this fairly isolated area it was not surprising that Conrad knew the dead woman and he wanted to know what happened to her. But this was the job of a relative newcomer to the area, Deputy Tom Hollis, originally from the city, to find out why this young woman was found in the water. The first thing he notices is that she was wearing jewelry and he realizes there is more to the story.
The victim of the drowning is soon revealed to be Lillian Wallace who belongs to a wealthy family who wants a quick resolution to the case because her brother is interested in running for a political office. The Chief of the East Hampton Police is a kowtower to people of influence and he too wants the death written off.
The power of this story comes from the depths of the characters and their backgrounds. Conrad Labarde served in a very elite unit during the war, and even in it he was unique and feared because he seemed to be guarded by angels. He knew better, but like most he never spoke of his wartime experiences, except for one time. He said that war tears at the heart of every man and at the sense of who he is.
‘ You could be brave one minute, a coward the next, selfless then cruel, compassionate and heartless within moments of each other. You spent a lifetime forging a view of what made you tick, what marked you out from other men. Then war came along and ripped that construct limb from limb. It seized you by the neck, pressed your face to the mirror and showed you that you weren’t one thing or another, but all things at the same time. The only question was: which bit of you would show up next? That’s what F**ed you up. The not knowing.’
Tom Hollis had his life torn apart in a different way but he learned many of the same life lessons. He knew that it had to be something Lillian had experienced that led to her death.
Eastern Long Island in 1947 is distant time and place but Mark Mills has no problem capturing the essence of the era as well as the location. This book brought back memories of my own of visiting Montauk Point with friends in the early ‘60s and watching the breakers of the Atlantic crash on the shore as we looked out from what seemed like land’s end.
He also used the language of the sea beautifully and it was foreign to me as he spoke of longshore sets turning and right whales bound east’rd inside the bar. I loved it.
I also took home from this book that this area once belonged to the Montaukett Indians and moneyed developers wanted to make a northern Miami Beach in the area, setting aside agreement with the native people. Judges declared the Montauketts extinct even while they sat in their courtrooms in full regalia. A hurricane in 1938 stopped the plans for a while but money will always talk and it will be heard.
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pewter skin of the sea and there is nothing else to do but bring it in. It is what they hoped it wasn’t, a dead woman still beautiful but sea washed and peaceful.The setting for this mystery is the south fork of Long Island at Amagansett near East Hampton not far from the most eastern part of New York, Montauk Point. This is a community that has been settled over the centuries by fishermen of all kinds and all nationalities. From early days this was a perfect spot for capturing the right whale, which swam in these cold Atlantic waters, and yet it was a great breeding ground for smaller sea life like scallops and oysters. The gatherers of this kind of food were called Bonackers.
Montauk folk were initially the Montaukett Indians but Norwegians, Finns, Spaniards, Danes, Dutch and Portuguese joined them for the fishing. The Italians came for the building of the Long Island Railroad and the Irish just came. The whalers had distain for the Bonackers who harvested mainly small stuff such as clams, scallops and oysters, the early settlers looked down on all new comers and worst of all they were all considered invisible and of no account to the Gatsbian types who left the city to build summer homes in the Hamptons.
In this fairly isolated area it was not surprising that Conrad knew the dead woman and he wanted to know what happened to her. But this was the job of a relative newcomer to the area, Deputy Tom Hollis, originally from the city, to find out why this young woman was found in the water. The first thing he notices is that she was wearing jewelry and he realizes there is more to the story.
The victim of the drowning is soon revealed to be Lillian Wallace who belongs to a wealthy family who wants a quick resolution to the case because her brother is interested in running for a political office. The Chief of the East Hampton Police is a kowtower to people of influence and he too wants the death written off.
The power of this story comes from the depths of the characters and their backgrounds. Conrad Labarde served in a very elite unit during the war, and even in it he was unique and feared because he seemed to be guarded by angels. He knew better, but like most he never spoke of his wartime experiences, except for one time. He said that war tears at the heart of every man and at the sense of who he is.
‘ You could be brave one minute, a coward the next, selfless then cruel, compassionate and heartless within moments of each other. You spent a lifetime forging a view of what made you tick, what marked you out from other men. Then war came along and ripped that construct limb from limb. It seized you by the neck, pressed your face to the mirror and showed you that you weren’t one thing or another, but all things at the same time. The only question was: which bit of you would show up next? That’s what F**ed you up. The not knowing.’
Tom Hollis had his life torn apart in a different way but he learned many of the same life lessons. He knew that it had to be something Lillian had experienced that led to her death.
Eastern Long Island in 1947 is distant time and place but Mark Mills has no problem capturing the essence of the era as well as the location. This book brought back memories of my own of visiting Montauk Point with friends in the early ‘60s and watching the breakers of the Atlantic crash on the shore as we looked out from what seemed like land’s end.
He also used the language of the sea beautifully and it was foreign to me as he spoke of longshore sets turning and right whales bound east’rd inside the bar. I loved it.
I also took home from this book that this area once belonged to the Montaukett Indians and moneyed developers wanted to make a northern Miami Beach in the area, setting aside agreement with the native people. Judges declared the Montauketts extinct even while they sat in their courtrooms in full regalia. A hurricane in 1938 stopped the plans for a while but money will always talk and it will be heard.
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LibraryThing member passion4reading
A young woman's body is found in a fishing net off the Long Island coast. Everyone believes it was a tragic accident, but the Deputy Chief of Police and the fisherman who discovered her have their suspicions from the outset, so each pursues their own investigation into her death.
This was a real
This was a real
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slow-burner with lots of background information to each of the characters and local colour (with obscure fishing terminology), so much in fact that the plot hardly progressed at all. When you come across the old "Was it an accident or murder?" question in a novel, there is usually only one answer to it, and it proved true here too. In fact, after a certain point the sequence of events was easily predictable, and the only reason this book didn't get a lower rating was because the author delivered a well-written snapshot of life in a fishing community after the Second World War. Show Less
LibraryThing member lonepalm
Brilliant Debut Novel: 1947. East Hampton, NY. Conrad Labarde, a Basque immigrant fisherman, finds a dead woman in his seine. Another drowning? But Lillian Wallace swam every day. Her room wasn't slept in, but the toilet seat's up. And why was she wearing pearl earrings? She never wore them when
So begins a mystery unique, deep and textured. Conrad and Tom Hollis, Deputy Chief, are unlikely allies, but they appear to be the only ones who think the tragic drowning of Lillian Wallace may have been something more than a sad but not uncommon summer's misadventure. And they're both loners; they don't know or trust each other. So why are they being pressured to leave the death alone? Hollis hates his job and wants to split. Conrad is just surviving. He's a war hero coping with trauma: family sadness, the loss of love, and post-trauma stress disorder. What do these men have in common? Only a sense that something's wrong with the Lillian Wallace picture, and it must be made right. The smell of money pollutes the air. Blue fins run.
Mark Mills has written a stellar novel: more than a mystery, literary, but going someplace. Just don't ask me to pronounce the title. Mills' descriptions of the deceptive seas, the fine points of commercial fishing, and the struggles of local fishing families living like crabs in the bolt-holes, pockets and hard-up interiors of the developing post-war East Hampton are full and textured. East Hampton is both a sea-based rural community, where life is hard and values are simple and well-learned, and a playground for the rich and powerful, where rules bend under the weight of money. How does the murder of Lillian Wallace span this expanding culture chasm?
You won't soon be lending "Amagansett."
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she swam. What's wrong here? So begins a mystery unique, deep and textured. Conrad and Tom Hollis, Deputy Chief, are unlikely allies, but they appear to be the only ones who think the tragic drowning of Lillian Wallace may have been something more than a sad but not uncommon summer's misadventure. And they're both loners; they don't know or trust each other. So why are they being pressured to leave the death alone? Hollis hates his job and wants to split. Conrad is just surviving. He's a war hero coping with trauma: family sadness, the loss of love, and post-trauma stress disorder. What do these men have in common? Only a sense that something's wrong with the Lillian Wallace picture, and it must be made right. The smell of money pollutes the air. Blue fins run.
Mark Mills has written a stellar novel: more than a mystery, literary, but going someplace. Just don't ask me to pronounce the title. Mills' descriptions of the deceptive seas, the fine points of commercial fishing, and the struggles of local fishing families living like crabs in the bolt-holes, pockets and hard-up interiors of the developing post-war East Hampton are full and textured. East Hampton is both a sea-based rural community, where life is hard and values are simple and well-learned, and a playground for the rich and powerful, where rules bend under the weight of money. How does the murder of Lillian Wallace span this expanding culture chasm?
You won't soon be lending "Amagansett."
Show Less
LibraryThing member sianpr
What seems like an accidental drowning of a society woman turns into a murder mystery involving a local fisherman (who is a war hero), a second rate cop whose on his uppers and the woman's family. There's plenty of skeletons in the cupboard, a lot of attention to detail, and a slow burning plot
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that builds momentum. Well written and gripping story. Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Crime Writers' Association Awards (Winner — 2004)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2004
Physical description
400 p.; 6.34 inches
ISBN
0399151842 / 9780399151842