As the sole assistant to a famous upscale interior designer, Lane Harmon, mother to five-year-old Katie, is accustomed to visiting opulent homes around the tri-state area. A born optimist, Lane finds the glimpse into these gilded worlds fascinating, and loves the reward of exceeding the expectations of their often-demanding owners. When she is called to assist in redecorating a modest townhouse in Bergen County, she knows the job is unusual. Then she learns the home belongs to the wife of a notorious and disgraced financier named Parker Bennett.
Parker Bennett has been missing for two years. He dropped out of sight just before it was discovered that the $5 billion dollars in the fund he had been managing had vanished. Bennett had gone out on his sailboat in the Caribbean. Was it suicide or had he staged his disappearance? The scandal around his name has not died down. His clients and the federal government all want to trace the money and find Bennett if he is still alive.
Lane is surprised to find herself moved by Mrs. Bennett’s calm dignity and apparently sincere belief in her husband’s innocence. Gradually, Lane finds herself drawn to Mark, the Bennetts’ son, who is similarly determined to prove that his father is not guilty. Lane doesn’t know that the closer she gets to the Bennetts, the more she puts her life―and her daughter’s life―in jeopardy.
Wanting to find a quick audio read, I checked out The Melody Lingers On from my app for my library’s e-audio collection. I had been having trouble finding a mystery or suspense book that resonated with me. Since, Mary Higgins Clark is a big name (quite literally if you notice her name is bigger than the titles of her books now), I thought I could do no wrong in choosing her. I had listened to another book of hers, but it wasn’t anything too spectacular.
This book was pretty much the same deal. There is little to no mystery. The FBI seem to fumble around trying to find evidence or having some personal mission to prove a character is bad. The main character(?) is a widowed single mother who gets pitted into this mess because she’s a love interest for Parker Bennet’s(the rich a-hole “bad guy”) son.
Now, you’re probably wondering why I put the question mark there, huh? Well, I’m not too sure if there is a main character. It’s more of an ensembled hodge podge of point of views equally separated. There are view splits where one scene is experienced again through another character. I didn’t care about this for mulitple reasons. In a list:
- You aren’t sure who the main character is and it’s difficult to grow an attatchment.
- You are seeing the viewpoint of even the “bad guy” or you realize who the real bad guy is because he’s the only frequent character without screentime.
- Sentences are repeated like the author copied and pasted the text.
- It seems the story couldn’t be as long without the extra and almost needless point of views.
So, you can see why I didn’t care for most of this book.
If that doesn’t bother you, The Melody Lingers On is a quick read. I wouldn’t say fast paced. It’s just quick because the wording and flow is a person talking. There isn’t much thought to the reading of this book. The suspense isn’t all there. I didn’t feel compelled to know what was going to happen next aside from the fact that I wanted to see all of the point of views converge. It was like a soap opera, in that respect.
All in all, it wasn’t as great as I would have liked, but it kept me occupied while I did my chores around the house. I was able to finish it (unlike a good many other audio books I checked out).
Casia's Corner 