This was a re-read of one of my favourite books. The second in the loosely connected Blue Rose series, the novel shows the coming of age of a boy, Tom Pasmore, born to a privileged but dysfunctional family on the (fictional) Caribbean island of Millwalk. On this island, the Redwing family rule the roost, and Tom's grandfather has enjoyed a great influence with them, being in a business partnership with the previous and current partriarch of that family.

Early in the story, Tom, already somewhat of a bookworm (probably as an escape from a homelife where his parents both drinks and his 'fragile' mother often has screaming fits), travels to the other side of town to investigate something which puzzles him. A man had arrived at his house throwing rocks until Tom's grandfather, there on a visit, had persuaded him to leave. Tom catches the man's address and hitches a ride to try to discover what grudge the man has against his family. Unfortunately, the man sends some boys after him with knives and when he runs into traffic to escape them, he suffers a serious accident.

Recuperating in Shady Mount hospital, he forms a bond with two nurses and is visited by an eccentric neighbour, Lamont van Helitz, who brings him plenty of classic detective fiction to read. Seven years later, as a 17 year old on the verge of graduating from high school, he is drawn into an investigation of the corruption and brutality that lie just beneath the surface of the ruling class, when van Helitz recruits him to assist in an investigation. His grandfather "suggests" that he spend the summer in his old lodge at a private lake resort in the USA - none of the family have been back there since the mid 1920s, though the grandfather is not honest about what has really kept them away. The Redwings spend every summer there and it is supposed to be an opportunity for Tom to ingratiate himself with the island's ruling class, but he is more interested in looking into a murder that took place there in 1925, and in romancing Sarah Spence, a young woman who everyone else expects to marry the boorish son of the Redwings.

I loved the relationship between Tom and his mentor and also with Sarah Spence. There were also some well sketched minor characters such as Barbara Deane, the woman with s a secret past, connected to his grandfather and to the machinations of the island's rulers, and who now lives at the town near the resort and looks after the empty lodge. The book is also a beautiful homage to classic crime fiction, mostly the stories of Sherlock Holmes, whom van Helitz resembles. Tom himself is a very untypical teenager, but given his weird upbringing, whole year spent in hospital where he was hardly visited by his parents, and the family inheritance that eventually is revealed, I didn't find that difficult to accept. All in all I loved the book as much as the first time I read it, even though I did remember the sad fate of one character, and am very pleased to award it 5 stars. ( )

A good old fashion murder mystery, with a few interesting twists and turns throughout the story. ( )

I really like Peter Straub's story telling style. It just seems to flow off the page. ( )

I enjoyed the book "Ghost Story," so I thought I'd try another by this author, but this one didn't do it for me. As Tom Pasmore pursues his sleuthing, he encounters crazy characters and strange occurrences. Some of these pertain to the storyline; some were thrown in and didn't make much sense to me. Just not my type of book, I guess. ( )

I'm approximating a quote here. "This book ... It has too many words."

Good story, really good characters, excellent mystery with lots of twists. But so many things I didn't need to know. Long, winding passages that led nowhere. Descriptions of things that didn't matter and set no tone.

The abridged version would have been fine. ( )