Murder on the Pier by Jere Myles

[reviews_and_ramblings]

This is not a simple book, mainly since it flows backwards, but once you enter in its logic, it is actually quite simple to understand, it's like a play of hidden boxes, you open the first big box and it's difficult to understand what is inside since it contains other closed boxes; you have some clues on the contents but you have to actually open another box to be sure, and again it's a box which contains other boxes.

The book starts with a murder: a man is running on a Chicago pier and he has no escape from his destiny. Very few details to understand who is the man killed and then the reader is brought back of few weeks and enters Jon Rose, a reclusive artist who is grieving the loss of his partner, Mieko Mitchell, a jewish doctor who is a gay activist. Again some clues, but not certainty; there is the feeling that Mieko died of a sudden death, probably a tragic and violent one. Jon is both mourning his lover than trying to bring on his concept, and to do so he has to force himself, since Jon is not really a sociable man. But Mieko taught him something, and Jon feels that he has to share those teachings with other people. During this time the reader collects clues on Mieko and Jon's past life while in the meantime is trying to know better Jon and some other characters around him, above all Eileen, the woman who played the matchmaker for Jon and Mieko. This part of the novel ends with a murder and again the reader is brought back in time, of some months this time.

In the second part we finally meet Mieko, and the reader replays all the events that in the first part of the book were only fond memories of Jon. It's like if we are opening those hidden boxes, to actually see if what the tag on the box said is the contents of the box. Again the story flows and it's probably heading to the point of Mieko's death, and maybe to the explanation of also those other deaths, but it's not the purpose of this book to wrap up the mystery; this is expected to be a trilogy, and in the first book we enter the main characters, even the dead one, like Mieko, who nevertheless plays an important role. In the second book, that is anticipated at the end of this one, the main character will be Rich, the television reporter who interviewed Jon after Mieko's death, and so another box will be open and the reader will have the chance to investigate its contents.

The book is set in the '90, and so how the author deals the issue of homosexuality and gay rights is in a 20 years old way. There is still hate and fear, the gay man is seen as the plague-spreader, and the aim of the author is to give a different perspective on the gay community, one of acceptance and understanding.

Amazon Kindle: Murder on the Pier

Amazon: Murder on the Pier

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