A SYMMETRY OF HUSBANDS

Maine author Patricia O’Donnell’s new novel, “A Symmetry of Husbands,” explores modern marriage in the Trump political era, and makes one point crystal clear: The secret to a happy marriage is still a secret.

O’Donnell lives in Wilton and is a prize-winning author of a memoir and two other novels. This is a sad yet potent commentary of marriage, relationships, trust, infidelity, and how men and women can so easily hide feelings and truths, pretending to be happy when they are not.  A masterful storyteller, O’Donnell reveals that no one really knows what goes on in someone else’s marriage.

Two Boston couples, Abigail and James, and Megan and Douglas, have been friends for years. One wife is dying of multiple sclerosis, one husband is a serial philander, one wife has a private secret she thinks no one knows, and one husband seems clueless about everything. And all four hide secrets they hope no one discovers.

O’Donnell carefully tells of the four relationships before marriage, foreshadowing what is yet to come (the reader will see it easily along with some sharp political opinion). Abigail and Megan are childhood friends, close but they don’t share all their thoughts. After one wife dies of MS, the other finds her journal and a stash of pills, and wonders about the real cause of her friend’s death, and about the secrets revealed in the journal. She also questions the widower’s grief  — is it real or just relief?

Meanwhile, the surviving wife’s own marriage and relationships are in jeopardy — suspicion, promises made and broken, self-doubt, anger and guilt cloud good judgment. There is little humor and no joy here, but O’Donnell does prove this: Men think women will never change and women think men will change, and both are wrong.

SIMMERING, SAVORY AND DEADLY: A SOUP MAKER’S MYSTERY

A Caribbean vacation to the French/Dutch island of St. Martin seems like the perfect mid-winter escape for four friends from Maine. After all, who wouldn’t like tasty cuisine, terrific booze, warm sunshine and sandy beaches in January? It’s great fun until somebody gets killed.

“Simmering, Savory and Deadly” is the debut mystery by Waterville author Jody Rich. This is an ambitious effort — part tourism promotion for St. Martin, part Caribbean cuisine and recipe journal, and part murder mystery. Rich clearly favors all three parts, so she must be
forgiven to trying to decide which is most important.

Partners Brie and Vidalia and two other women are retired professionals eager to enjoy the Caribbean delights of St. Martin (sipping rum drinks beats shoveling snow). While at their beachfront resort, watching a musical fund-raising show for a local orphanage, they witness a popular singing star suddenly drop dead on stage. The four women are smart, curious and suspicious, especially when one of them is accused of tampering with the victim’s costume before the show.

They poke around, ask questions, and generally make a nuisance of themselves, earning the great displeasure of the police (who refreshingly are a lot more professional and savvy than one might expect). Despite being warned off by the police, brash and forceful Vidalia and the other women find themselves up to their sun hats in perilous and passionate island intrigue, including jealousy, betrayal, hidden identity and intense resentment.

To murder add burglary, attempted murder, attempted suicide, the scary hocus-pocus of voodoo superstition and rituals, a very resourceful female police detective, and Rich has a fun, light read. The Who Did It at the end may not surprise, but the Who Solved It will.

Bill Bushnell lives and writes in Harpswell.

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