Wit's End

By Karen Joy Fowler

Book Overview

This "delightful and eccentric new tale"( The Boston Globe ) from the bestselling author of The Jane Austen Book Club subverts the whodunit and gives us a thoroughly modern meta-mystery with wit, warmth, and heart. At loose ends and weary from her recent losses--the deaths of an inventive if at times irritating father and her beloved brother--Rima Lansill comes to Wit's End, the home of her legendary godmother, bestselling mystery writer Addison Early, to regroup...and in search of answers. For starters, why did Addison name one of her characters--a murderer--after Rima's father? But Addison is secretive and feisty, so consumed with protecting her famous fictional detective, Maxwell Lane, from the vagaries of the Internet rumor that she has writer's block. As one woman searches for truth, the other struggles to control the reality of her fiction. Rima soon becomes enmeshed in Addison's household of eccentrics: a formerly alcoholic cook and her irksome son, two quirky dog-walkers, a mysterious stalker, the tiny characters that populate Addison's dollhouse crime-scene replicas, and even Maxwell Lane himself. But, wrapped up in a mystery that may or may not be of her own creation, Rima discovers to her surprise that the ultimate solution to this puzzle is the new family she has found at the house called Wit's End. Here, Karen Joy Fowler delivers top-notch storytelling--creating characters both oddball and endearing in a voice that is utterly and memorably her own--in this clever, playful novel about finally allowing oneself to grow up-with a dash of mystery thrown in.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0452290066
• ISBN13: 9780452290068
• Release Date: April 2009
• Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.2" x 7.9"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Very Enjoyable

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It was charming and gentle, but held my attention throughout. I enjoyed the descriptions of the setting, and the whole premise of the story. I can easily see myself rereading it several years from now. Bravo!

Delightful from beginning to end

No one writes more engaging books than Karen Joy Fowler, and WIT'S END is no exception. Part mystery, part reluctant love story, part hilarious cultural send-up, the book is elegant and intelligent at every level. Fowler is the best postmodern writer working today; her books weave allusions and jokes into their engrossing plots with great deftness, and her prose is inventive and always beautiful. In WIT'S END she not only creates a mystery novel but also a contemplation of what mystery means--why we seek and need the very things we yearn to solve. A wonderfully learned book that wears its learning lightly, a gorgeously written book that moves with grace and economy, it's one of the finest books published this year, and one that I am commending to everyone I know.

Witty!

Mysteries are my weakness, and the whole idea of the doll-house murder scenes in Wit's End was so delightful to start with that I was drawn right in. Fowler sets off in a voice that is fresh and original, stirring in quirky characters with great names like Scorch - some of whom are "real," some of whom are characters in books within the book, and some of whom are both. The funky Santa Cruz scene and a cult outpost called Holy City are as fascinating on the page as the real Santa Cruz is. And when a mini-murder corps (named Thomas Grand) mysteriously disappears, the fun really begins. As Rima - one of those characters who both is real and fictional, at least in some fans' minds! - tries to uncover the truth about her family, the reader is treated to wonderfully funny and true insights about human nature and the way we behave online and off. Wit's End is without a doubt one of the freshest, most original books I've read this year!

A Great Summer Read

After the death of her father (expected), Rima Lannisell moves from Cleveland, Ohio to Santa Cruz, California to stay with her godmother, famous mystery author, A.B. Early; a woman whom she hardly knows. During her stay, Rima plans to find out just what the story is behind Addison's relationship with her father. The majority of the plot focuses on Rima becoming embroiled in her own "Maxwell Lane" mystery, making it sometimes difficult to tell what is "real" and what is fantasy. During Rima's quest to find out about the relationship between Addison and her deceased father, Rima finds herself becoming a detective with the help of Addison's fictional detective, Maxwell Lane. Much of the plot centers around letters written during the early times of Addisons career from a woman named Constance Wellington, who lived in Holy City - a transformed cult. The reader soon finds that Addison is quite obsessed with cults. Most of the time, Rima is a self-pitying woman who continues to mourn the death of her brother, Oliver, who's been dead about four years. Personally, I found Rima the least likable character of the bunch, but it didn't interfere with the reading of the novel. Fowler interlaces humorous characters (with Addison Early, herself, and other secondary characters) while still making them appear as real as can be. The commentary about online blogs and "everyone being a writer" (through Addison) is hilarious and oh-so true. The plot ties together neatly at the end, but also wants you to hope for more.