Murder by Death

My re-read of this book has been an interesting, eye-opening experience of how time and life can alter one's view of a story.

Maddie Faraday is the "Good Girl" in a small town run on gossip, and married to her high school sweetheart, Brent, the "Golden Boy" of Frog Point, who predictably can't keep it in his pants.  C.L. was the bad boy in high school who long ago shared one very steamy night with Maddie in the back of a car; the culmination of a long-standing crush on his part, and an act of revenge on hers.  Now, 20 years later, C.L. is back - mature, still sexy, and an accountant - to do a favour for his ex-wife, by looking at the books of the construction company Brent co-owns.  All hell breaks loose.

I remember this book being a fun romp with some moderately steamy sex scenes when I first read it lo those many years ago.  It's still a fun romp with some moderately steamy sex scenes, but this time around it was also...confronting.  This time around I'm on the other side of a marriage implosion and a good chunk of this story felt very real, very plausible.  Maddie's meltdown, Brent's avoidance, the anger, the confrontation, that very desperate moment Maddie has with a half bottle of wine in her hand: it all felt like it came from a place of personal experience (for the author - not me).  Losing herself in C.L. also felt authentic if not intelligent.  

This is chick-lit, so it goes without saying that the story has a happy, if overly convenient, ending, but the middle is a bit more raw than anything else I've read of Crusie's.  

There's a mystery element to this story as well, and it was really well crafted; the suspect so deeply buried in the narrative that I never had a clue.  A very good read and not quite as frivolous as one would think from the term "chick-lit".