“Mrs. Wilson’s Affair,” by Allyson Reedy (Union Square)
Of all the characters in “The Great Gatsby,” the most pitiful one is Myrtle Wilson. She’s the garage mechanic’s wife whose affair with Tom Buchanan, Daisy’s husband, leads to her death. Poor Myrtle’s dreams of rising above her station and entering the glamorous world of the jazz age trigger the dramatic end of Gatsby.
In “Mrs. Wilson’s Affair,” Denver novelist (and former Denver Post food writer) Reedy hijacks Myrtle and creates the woman’s backstory. In this lyrically written book, Myrtle emerges as witty, smart, and funny — and tragic, because you know from the start what lies ahead.
Myrtle’s marriage is a dead end, but it wasn’t always dreary. Her husband, George, was an artist whose ambition was to paint sets in Hollywood. Instead, he took over his father’s garage, located on a dreary stretch of road between Long Island and New York. The couple moved into an apartment upstairs where Myrtle sits day after day, listening to her husband tinker in the garage below. Her only pleasure is the trips she takes to New York to visit her sister.
Encountering Tom Buchanan on the subway one morning, she ends up in his apartment and becomes his mistress. Myrtle breaks up with him again and again, but the excitement of the affair and her wish not only to be like Daisy but to be Daisy herself draw her back. George never suspects a thing, until finally, he does. The rest is literary history.
Reedy set a hard task for herself in appropriating a character from one of the most famous books ever written. But she was up to it. “Mrs. Wilson’s Affair” is not just a story. Reedy’s narration about what goes on in Myrtle’s mind and about the forces that are changing women in 1922 give the book depth. The novel is a whole new way of viewing the Gatsby saga.
“Dying Cry,” by Margaret Mizushima (Crooked Lane)
Mizushima gets right to it. In the first paragraph, Mattie Walker hears the dying cry of someone, then sees a man’s body just below a cliff. Before she can reach it, a rock slide covers the body. She digs frantically to reach him, only to find a mangled corpse — of a friend.
It’s not the ending she’d planned for a winter vacation at a local resort for her new family. Mattie had been married for only a few months to a veterinarian with two daughters. Since the mysterious death takes place near the town of Timber Creek, Colo., where Mattie works as a deputy sheriff, with her K-9 dog, Robo, she’s immediately assigned to the case.
The murdered man worked at a bank and had set up an appointment with an ethics officer about an impropriety. Does that mean that bank officials attending a conference at the resort were involved in the murder? Maybe the dead man’s wife, an assistant at Mattie’s husband’s clinic, is the killer. She stands to inherit insurance money. Or perhaps an outsider is responsible. There’s also something a little off about the part-time bank employee who takes over for the widow at the clinic. With the help of Robo (who readers love), Mattie’s bound to find the killer — but not before she and her family are enveloped in danger.
As always, Mizushima delivers a good mystery. But married Mattie is not as interesting as single Mattie. The one-happy-family scenario is too pat. There ought to be a few bumps in the road with the vet and his daughters. (This is the last in her Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries series.)
“The Way Out,” by Devon O’Neil (Harper One)
In January 2017, a group of four Salida, Colo., teenagers and three fathers set off for a backcountry ski trip at a hut near Leadville. All were seasoned skiers, and they came equipped with state-of-the-art safety equipment.
That first morning, as snow was starting to fall, Brett, one of the fathers, and Cole, a 16-year-old boy, were unwilling to wait until the others were ready for the group outing. They set off on skis for a quick jaunt. Neither took a locator beacon, nor were they dressed for long exposure to the weather. The snow quickly turned into a freak blizzard, and the pair got lost. When they hadn’t returned by mid-afternoon, the remaining fathers called for help. As soon as the word went out, friends, neighbors and seasoned rescuers volunteered to hunt for them. Some 30 hours after the skiers set off, rescuers located them.
Colorado author Devon O’Neil, a former Outside magazine correspondent, details the chilling tale of the two skiers lost for more than a day in a blizzard that left one dead and the other traumatized.
From the vantage point of nearly a decade, O’Neil tells of Brett’s innate impulsiveness and Cole’s daring that led them to take off unprepared. The author did his homework, interviewing survivors and their families to write about how the tragedy affected them long range. “The Way Out” is a story about people, giving an arresting look at how lives go on when the media hype ends and the initial impact is over.