cover image Journal: The Short Life and Mysterious Death of Amy Zoe Mason

Journal: The Short Life and Mysterious Death of Amy Zoe Mason

Kristine Atkinson, Joyce Atkinson, . . Simon & Schuster, $23 (160pp) ISBN 978-0-7432-9038-8

This tantalizing "found" journal of a troubled young wife and mother combines the diary of Amy Mason, correspondence, clippings from newspaper accounts and remnants of the 19th-century novel Amy used instead of a blank notebook to frame the story of her disintegrating marriage. Amy's husband, Robert, moves to Boston to head a new cardiology institute, but Amy and her two small children remain behind in Houston, planning to follow later. As the relocation process drags on, Robert throws himself into his new responsibilities and Amy fights a deepening depression. She finds a new friend in her Houston real estate agent, Vanessa Garamond, but the beautiful Vanessa provokes Amy's suspicions with an unannounced trip to Boston. Sisters Kristine and Joyce Atkinson only hint at the occurrence of a crime, and readers will have to draw their own conclusions from the open-ended assemblage of visual and textual clues. Traditional mystery readers may want a more definitive story, but amateur scrapbookers will find inspiration in this collage. 5-city author tour. (Sept.)

Correction: The title of Jacqueline Winspear's new Maisie Dobbs novel (Reviews, June 19) is Messenger of Truth , not Messenger of Death .