Series
Publication
Berkley (2002), 432 p.
Original publication date
2001
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Genres
Subjects
Description
A once fashionable, now fading resort hotel. A spinster aunt living in the attic. A house full of secrets and dusty furnishings, uninhabited for almost fifty years. A neglected lake, covered with water lilies. Pettiness and cruelty in small-town America. And Emma Graham, a twelve-year-old girl with a passion for double-chocolate ice-cream sodas and decaying lakefronts, and an obsession with the death of another girl - Mary-Evelyn Devereau - forty years earlier. COLD FLAT JUNCTION is the sequel to Martha Grimes' HOTEL PARADISE and in it Emma Graham continues to look for answers surrounding the fate of Mary-Evelyn, who was also twelve when she drowned in Spirit Lake. And the murder of Fern Queen remains to be solved. COLD FLAT JUNCTION is a delicate yet excruciating view of the decisions a young girl must make on her way to becoming an adult, and a novel with extraordinary range and depth.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member krsball
I love this series and Martha Grimes is one of my favorite writers. Highly recommended.
LibraryThing member EmScape
The prequel to this book, Hotel Paradise, is one of my favorite, read-over-and-over books. Unfortunately, it seems Grimes hadn't even read it recently before writing this. The first few chapters contradict previous events so many times I wanted to scream in frustration. It also seems to have lost
Two other small nit-picks with Emma's character are that she seems to spend a lot of time going off places with strange men she just met, one even an admitted poacher(!), and aside from said poacher mentioning this one time, no one seems to have any problem with it. Second, I really could have done without Emma's intermittent descriptions of her imaginary vacation to Florida. In an almost-400-page book, a little more editing is definitely necessary. Also, who goes on vacation and leaves their two kids, aged 12 and 14, with no supervision except their 90 year old great-aunt, who never leaves the 4th floor, and a "slow-witted" dishwasher? If this story took place anywhere near reality, this kid would have been tragically raped, murdered, kidnapped, or burnt down the hotel instead of running around solving mysteries.
I did like the way the story was wrapped up, and I do look forward to the third book, Belle Ruin, mostly because I haven't any idea what it could be about unless it's another mystery entirely. I didn't really think the first one needed such an extended wrap-up (the ambiguousness of Hotel Paradise's ending was part of its beauty), but it was interesting to find out more about the Deveraus and get some confirmation of certain theories. At this point, I'm not really sure whether to recommend this book or not. It's kind of a toss-up.
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the dreamlike, meandering quality I liked so much, as the 12-year-old narrator seems to have matured the 10 years or so that passed between the writing of the two novels, and is now looking back on the events that took place immediately following, while previously, she seemed to be telling about things as they happened. She explains things a lot more now. While some of this is exposition to remind us of what happened in the last book (with the aforementioned contradictions and just plain inaccuracies), it continues through new events, so that what seemed before to be a kid's eye view of things, is just plodding and mechanical. It was so disconcerting reading these virtually back-to-back; Emma didn't even seem like the same person. Sheriff Sam DeGehyn also seemed to have undergone an abrupt makeover. Emma's high praise of him being someone who didn't treat her like a kid and actually listened to her as though her thoughts were just as important as an adult's completely vanished, as he discounted her and her investigation of the murders, basically telling her to keep her little nose out of it. Especially if you consider Sam's actions in The End of the Pier where Sam is the only one who doesn't believe the convenient suspect is guilty, it's hard to see Sam here acting like he wants to pin everything on Ben, just because it's so coincidental and obvious. In fact, come to think of it, the two mysteries are quite similar in that there are several murders, an obvious suspect, and then a less obvious guilty party. Only Sam's attitude has done a complete 180 in terms of who he'd prefer to blame. Two other small nit-picks with Emma's character are that she seems to spend a lot of time going off places with strange men she just met, one even an admitted poacher(!), and aside from said poacher mentioning this one time, no one seems to have any problem with it. Second, I really could have done without Emma's intermittent descriptions of her imaginary vacation to Florida. In an almost-400-page book, a little more editing is definitely necessary. Also, who goes on vacation and leaves their two kids, aged 12 and 14, with no supervision except their 90 year old great-aunt, who never leaves the 4th floor, and a "slow-witted" dishwasher? If this story took place anywhere near reality, this kid would have been tragically raped, murdered, kidnapped, or burnt down the hotel instead of running around solving mysteries.
I did like the way the story was wrapped up, and I do look forward to the third book, Belle Ruin, mostly because I haven't any idea what it could be about unless it's another mystery entirely. I didn't really think the first one needed such an extended wrap-up (the ambiguousness of Hotel Paradise's ending was part of its beauty), but it was interesting to find out more about the Deveraus and get some confirmation of certain theories. At this point, I'm not really sure whether to recommend this book or not. It's kind of a toss-up.
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LibraryThing member nmele
This one starts slowly, the first 50 pages or so sounded like Grimes was starting a new, "Emma Graham" series in the vein of her Richard Jury books, but stay with her, this novel becomes marvelous, ironic, witty, allusive. And one mystery is solved by its conclusion.
LibraryThing member Ma_Washigeri
A bit more plot and less atmosphere than Hotel Paradise which I rate as an astonishingly good book, but still terrific. Really difficult to put down towards the end - leaving you with the dilemma of wanting to read on, yet not wanting to finish the book too quickly. Really looking forward to Belle
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Ruin which I have not read yet but and my copy has arrived just in time from America. Show Less
LibraryThing member Ma_Washigeri
A bit more plot and less atmosphere than Hotel Paradise which I rate as an astonishingly good book, but still terrific. Really difficult to put down towards the end - leaving you with the dilemma of wanting to read on, yet not wanting to finish the book too quickly. Really looking forward to Belle
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Ruin which I have not read yet but and my copy has arrived just in time from America. Show Less
Language
Original language
English
ISBN
9780451205230
Physical description
432 p.; 5.4 inches
Pages
432