Discovering the Body: A Novel

By Mary Howard

Book Overview

Discovering the Body is a gripping novel filled with psychological suspense, sensitivity, and emotional complexity. With this stunning debut, Mary Howard has crafted an electrifying and hauntingly evocative novel of truth and perception, of the ties we tell others-and the lies we tell ourselves. Two years ago Linda Garbo left her graphic design job in Minneapolis to open a printmaking studio in a small town in Iowa with the encouragement of Luci Cole, a weaver and an old friend from art school. Arriving in Linden Grove for good, Linda agrees to stay with Luci and her boyfriend, Charlie, in their old farmhouse outside of town until the renovations to her new studio space are completed. But the following afternoon as she is driving down the long winding road toward Luci's house, Linda sees Luci's neighbor, Peter Garvey, walking out the front door-and when Linda enters the house a few minutes later, she discovers her friend's lifeless body on the kitchen floor. Now, two years later, Peter Garvey has been convicted of Luci's murder. Linda is married to Charlie and living in the very house where Luci died. And she is convinced someone is following her. As she begins to confront her fears-approaching the man she believes is spying on her, visiting Peter Garvey in prison-she finally faces the cause for her frequent panic attacks: she was too traumatized by her discovery of Luci's body to be a reliable witness. And if she's identified the wrong man, the killer may still be close by, ready to react if she admits she might have made a mistake. Compelled to unravel the mystery surrounding Luci's final days, Linda finds that Luci was a master at weaving her true colors into a complex tapestry, preferring involvements that required secrecy. A beautifully crafted tour de force of significant depth, passion, and power, Discovering the Body is a completely beguiling meditation on perception, loss, memory, and redemption whose conclusion proves to be as significantly haunting as it is satisfying.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060937173
• ISBN13: 9780060937171
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.9" x 0.7" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

An Engrossing and Complex Psychological Thriller

Linda Garbo comes home to find her friend Luci Cole dead on the kitchen floor with her throat slashed and a bloody knife lying close to the body. She believes she has seen the murderer and her testimony leads to neighbor Peter Garvey's conviction, even though he claimed that he didn't do it. The murder and it's aftermath throw Linda and Luci's lover, beekeeper Charlie Carpenter together and they marry two years after the trial. Then local reporter John Bender, who believes Garvey was wrongly convicted, talks Linda into meeting with the man she testified against. Garvey, who has admitted that he was Luci's spurned lover, casts doubts into Linda's mind about whether or not she got it right when she testified against him. Linda starts investigating Luci's life, determined to vindicate herself. However she's soon confronted by the knowledge that she knows little about who her friend was and as she sifts the evidence, she gradually concedes her identification of Luci's killer was a mistake and her effort to find out the truth places her own life in danger. Mary Howard has written an engrossing and complex psychological thriller that kept my up till dawn. I liked it very much and I think you will too.

well-paced and haunting

This book is much better than a typical murder mystery, offering not only suspense but also a nuanced portrait of the grief and fear that follow a murder. Howard's novel takes a lot of surprising twists and turns, yet always remains plausible. The main character, Linda, is an interesting heroine; she is neither damsel in distress nor crime expert. Thankfully, the book doesn't get bogged down in macabre details like so many recent mysteries, but the threat of danger throughout the novel was enough to make me keep the light on all night.

Fine novel, thrilling mystery

I couldn't stop reading Discovering the Body until I had finished it -- at three in the morning! I was taken in at once by the tensions among the characters -- by Linda Garbo's self doubt about her role as a murder witness and her certainty that there was someone "out there" observing her, waiting for her to make a false move. I was even more intrigued by her relationship with the murder victim Luci Cole. The two women had a bond based on Luci's need to depend on Linda and Linda's need to be needed, but their friendship had not gone very deep until it was too late. Remembering Luci, Linda comes to see how she failed her in many ways and may even have precipitated her murder. Luci's journal, like those of Anaas Nin, is an enigmatic blend of truth-telling and invention. The journal may or may not reveal the truth about Luci's life during the days before she died, and Linda's eagerness to treat the journal entries as if they were testimony add to the suspense as she closes in on the person she thinks is the killer. Linda realizes as the story unfolds that she has barely seen beneath the surfaces of most of the people around her. Luci was surely more complex, more troubled, than Linda had ever realized. Other townspeople, too, are barely appreciated by Linda until she starts investigating Luci's murder. Judy is Linda's opposite in many ways, a good friend against whom Linda can play off her suspicions. Other characters are equally well developed: Charlie, John Bender, Tess, Bill Allard. The minister, Reverend Gus, is an especially interesting character. One of Howard's strengths is dialog which reveals much more than characters realize they are giving away. I didn't see the ending coming at all, and found it very satisfying -- complicated and absolutely earned by all the detail that preceded it. All in all, this is a fine novel.

A Skillfully Written Page-Turner

Each sentence is carefully crafted, each sentence gives me a clear sense of place and character, each sentence leads me to wonder and question what will happen next -- all that means a "great read" to me. My biggest problem was that I wanted to flip to the end to see what happened because the suspense build-up was incredible. I didn't do that and don't you do it either because you'll miss too much of an intriguing story!

The New York Times Book Review

"The suspense builds from the first pages of Mary Howard's debut novel--a book so sure handed and graceful that you might forget it's a murder mystery...Howard creates an intricate cast of characters, any one of whom might have killed the artistic, flirtatious victim. Strong dialogue gives us insight into the shifting relationships here, and into Linda's marriage to Charlie, Luci's boyfriend at the time of the murder. Charlie thinks Linda is being paranoid. But the reader shares her increasing uncertainty about her friends, and her facts."