For fifth-graders, the greatest stressor is figuring out how to avoid the class bully. Bad lunches, short recesses, homework and mean teachers are all tolerable; the school bully, however, well, he (or she) is the veritable monster underneath the bed, a merciless creature who feasts on the fears and weaknesses of otherwise nice kids. In Anne Navarre’s fifth grade class, Dennis Farman is the dreaded tormentor. Wendy Morgan, Tommy Crane and even Dennis’ right-hand man, Cody Roache, are wary of the unpredictable tween. But Dennis is nothing compared to the monster that haunts the streets of Oak Knoll, California. A monster who leaves his picked-over prey in the local park for the four fifth-graders to find.
Plot Overview: Evil, Deception and Survival
On a fall morning in Oak Knoll, Tommy and his best friend, Wendy, are trying to outrun Cody and Dennis. Tommy, with his good looks, thoughtful demeanor and excellent grades, is a frequent target of the jealous and emotionally unbalanced Dennis. As the quartet tumbles down a leafy hill, Tommy finds himself landing on a woman half-buried in the ground. Only her head peaks above her shallow grave, and her lips and eyes are glued shut.
Detective Mendoza, a young, vibrant member of the local police department, arrives on the scene, shocked by the cruelty of the crime. Police Chief Dixon and his old friend, rigid and misogynistic officer Frank Farman, father of Dennis, also secure the scene, though Frank allows his son to run wild both inside and outside the yellow caution tape.
As Mendoza digs deeper into the murder, he, along with his partner, Hicks, discovers that the woman, who was turned blind, deaf and mute before she was killed, is not the first victim. Various missing women, each connected to the Thomas Center, a local foundation designed to help women in need, have turned up missing or dead.
Sensing the department has bitten off more than it can chew, Mendoza calls in Vince Leone, an FBI profiler recovering from a bullet to the head. Although he doesn’t reveal his wound or his FBI status immediately, Leone quickly narrows in on potential suspects for the “See-No-Evil” killer. He also sets his sights on Anne Navarre, fifth-grade teacher and budding child psychologist. The chemistry between the two sizzles, but each has his and her own understanding of human behavior, of the dysfunction and ugliness that can go on behind closed doors, though Anne’s perceptions are decidedly more hopeful.
Leone, Mendoza and Navarre work with the best of intentions but are not far from a proverbial hell rife with enemies. It’s only as they get closer to the killer that questionable characters’ true (and unnerving) natures are revealed.
Criticisms and Compliments
Of all the mystery writers, Tami Hoag is one of the best. Her prose is straightforward but advanced, appearing as a kind of learned simplicity that doesn’t dumb down vocabulary or grammar for the reader. Deeper Than the Dead, the first in a trilogy, is so nicely written that it’s easy to look past the one weakness: a predictable plot. The See-No-Evil killer is easy to pick out, and there’s really only one red herring, but for some readers (though probably not all), such a letdown doesn’t matter that much. Instead, the driving force behind the book is the character development. Vince Leone, behavioral scientist, is one of two standouts, a man as complex as he is brilliant. With a dose of vulnerability and an extra topping of a good sense of humor, he sweetens the novel, especially when he begins romancing the feisty Miss Navarre. Although his appearances are sporadic, the other bright personality is the flamboyantly gay and fabulously snarky kindergarten teacher Franny, Anne’s best friend. Compared to the rather staid police officers and school administrators – and the disturbing and clearly dysfunctional Farman family – Franny is the good-natured but sarcastic Greek chorus, a go-to BFF who will always tell the brutal truth and whose moral compass, despite its occasional shakiness, generally points due north.
The setting, the final element of the literary triumvirate, of Deeper Than the Dead is an interesting choice. In an introduction, Hoag describes her decision to set the novel in 1985, a time before DNA databases, technology and accepted forensic science. Considering the popularity of CSI, and the fact that we are, presumably, living in the CSI era (Dateline, 48 Hours and any show on Investigation Discovery anyone?), reading a mystery novel set in a time before the definitive answer of DNA is oddly nostalgic.
Even if Deeper Than the Dead isn’t a complex whodunit, it is still compelling enough to not only read but also enjoy. Check it out, and then try the other two books in the trilogy.
Source:
- Hoag, Tami. Deeper Than the Dead. Dutton Adult, 2009 ISBN 978052595130
