With a gay resort, an art colony, and a working fishing port, Provincetown has long been a place of freedom, escape, diversity, and risk. Mark Winslow, a Boston comic, arrives with his troupe of actors, ready to break into the Provincetown club circuit. But the town and the region are far from peaceful this summer. When a public fight makes Mark the prime suspect in the grisly death of a Boston blueblood, Mark believes his choice is simple. He must find the killer or be charged with the crime.
Amid the clam shacks and craft shops, art galleries and nude beaches, undercurrents are pulling at the surface of normality. Could the disappearance of a famous painter eighty years in the past—and the story of his masterpiece, “The Fisher Boy”—somehow lie at the center of the whirlpool of evil threatening to extinguish Mark’s life?
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"Interesting murder mystery that tries to do a little too much. "
— Linda (4 out of 5 stars)
“Anable has given his earnest sleuth a genuine sense of wonder at the beauty of the Cape and a rare ability to hold conversations with sad, wounded people. His is a voice worth hearing again.”
— Marilyn Stasio, New York Times“Ingenious plotting and witty prose lift Anable’s distinctive debut…A profusion of diverting red herrings and a clever twist…help keep the suspense high through to the surprising conclusion.”
— Publishers Weekly“Paul Michael Garcia narrates with a passion for delving into character…[and] creates full-bodied characters that will engage listeners from start to finish.”
— Audiofile“Garcia keeps the tension growing through his delicately calibrated reading and breathless rhythms, which help depict Mark’s mix of regret, fear, and terror as he becomes the prime suspect. Garcia does an equally solid job reflecting an assortment of assertive lesbians, Mark’s high-strung actor friends, and an asthmatic chef of questionable credibility.”
— Booklist" Interesting murder mystery that tries to do a little too much. "
— Linda, 11/17/2013" A good mystery set in P-town. "
— Nancy, 3/24/2013" Would I read another book by Stephen Anable, probably. "
— Linda, 4/23/2011" The plot is certainly complex enough to have kept my interest. The characters were less so. Not too bad for a first novel, though. "
— Beth, 3/29/2011" Nicely written and, although the plot goes WAY over the top toward the end, I found this mystery somewhat reminiscent of the work of the best of all gay mystery writers, the late Joseph Hansen. "
— Shawn, 2/20/2011" A good mystery set in P-town. "
— Nancy, 4/18/2010" The plot is certainly complex enough to have kept my interest. The characters were less so. Not too bad for a first novel, though. "
— Beth, 11/25/2008" Nicely written and, although the plot goes WAY over the top toward the end, I found this mystery somewhat reminiscent of the work of the best of all gay mystery writers, the late Joseph Hansen. "
— Shawn, 5/10/2008Stephen H. Anable was born in Boston and graduated from Stanford and Harvard universities. His short fiction and essays have been published in magazines and anthologies. At various times during his life, he has been a stand-up comic, a journalist, an actor, a social worker, a scriptwriter, and the communications coordinator at a cemetery. He has two sons and lives in Massachusetts.
Richard Powers has published thirteen novels. He is a MacArthur Fellow and received the National Book Award. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Overstory, and Bewilderment was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.