Dark Nantucket Noon

by Jane Langton

Series: Homer Kelly Mysteries (2)

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Mentions
206	4	139,631	(3.49)	12
Poet Kitty Clark has waited her entire life to see a total eclipse of the sun. News of an impending eclipse thrills her until she learns it will be visible only from Nantucket, where her ex-lover Joe Green recently moved with his new wife. Unable to resist the astronomical lure, she flies from Boston and makes her way to an isolated lighthouse, hoping to avoid Joe. The eclipse itself is overwhelming; Kitty screams when the sun vanishes behind the dark blot of the moon. When the sun returns a few minutes later, Kitty is standing over the bloodied body of Mrs. Joe Green, claiming the moon did it. Transcendentalist scholar and former detective Homer Kelly agrees to defend the troubled young poet, but the more Kitty insists she is innocent, the crazier she appears. To clear her name he must discover who set her up, and what happened during the two minutes when the Nantucket sun disappeared.… (more)

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Showing 4 of 4

A slightly disappointing mystery was fully redeemed in my eyes by the location and atmosphere.
A bizarre murder takes place during a solar eclipse. (Some issues with that, too.) But author Langton gives a tremendous amount of information on the biology of the island with its tides and wildlife. I grew up on Mass’s North Shore, and I was captivated by the immediacy of the descriptions.
I’d recommend this cautiously to those who love the northeast coast, and are mystery lovers as well. (

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Matke | Mar 6, 2020 |

During the few minutes of darkness during a total eclipse of the sun, a young woman is murdered on Nantucket Island. Discovered standing over her is the poet & college professor Kitty Clark, spurned lover of the dead woman's husband. Will Homer Kelly be able to convince a jury of Kitty's innocence?

Probably this mystery only deserves 3* but being from Massachusetts, I loved all the details and the line drawings about Nantucket in the book. (

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leslie.98 | Oct 18, 2017 |

[Dark Nantucket Noon] is the second in the Homer Kelly mystery series. I have realized that I like mysteries because I usually like the personality of the detectives and I like for my characters to have something to do. I am not really trying to solve the puzzle. In this one I really liked Kitty Clark the murder suspect. She is an eccentric poet with a loose grasp on reality at the best of times. The author tells you all about life on Nantucket Island past and present also about Herman Melville and Quakers. (

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BonnieJune54 | Oct 18, 2015 |

I was terribly disappointed in Ms. Langton's work; I really expected to enjoy her mysteries. This one had the most ridiculous premise to begin with - which I could have forgiven - and a hole a mile wide in the murder itself - which I cannot. I don't think I'll be taking any more of her works out for test drives. (

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grundlecat | Jun 7, 2014 |

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Homer Kelly Mysteries (2)

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Black Dagger Crime

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IMBA's 100 Favorite Mysteries of the 20th Century

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Canonical title

Dark Nantucket Noon

Original title

Dark Nantucket Noon

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People/Characters

Homer Kelly

Mary Kelly

Important places

Nantucket, Massachusetts, USA

Massachusetts, USA

Important events

Related movies

Epigraph

"I'd strike the sun if it insulted me..."

Captain Ahab in Moby Dick

Dedication

For Maryalice Thoma

First words

Below the little plane the water of Nantucket Sound slipped over itself, the gusty wind from the east rippling the surface in an endless rapid sparkling hastening succession of white-capped waves, while the larger waves below them seemed motionless from the air, a geologic mold of ocean water.

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▾Book descriptions

Poet Kitty Clark has waited her entire life to see a total eclipse of the sun. News of an impending eclipse thrills her until she learns it will be visible only from Nantucket, where her ex-lover Joe Green recently moved with his new wife. Unable to resist the astronomical lure, she flies from Boston and makes her way to an isolated lighthouse, hoping to avoid Joe. The eclipse itself is overwhelming; Kitty screams when the sun vanishes behind the dark blot of the moon. When the sun returns a few minutes later, Kitty is standing over the bloodied body of Mrs. Joe Green, claiming the moon did it. Transcendentalist scholar and former detective Homer Kelly agrees to defend the troubled young poet, but the more Kitty insists she is innocent, the crazier she appears. To clear her name he must discover who set her up, and what happened during the two minutes when the Nantucket sun disappeared.

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From book back:

It was a dark moment on Nantucket in more ways than one. An eclipse of the sun turned the daytime into chillingly unnatural night, and when the light returned, the most beautiful woman on the island lay dead in a pool of blood. Down-home Yankee sleuth Home Kelly has to prove the innocence of a girl with every reason to kill, and he has to discover who among the rich Nantucket upper crust descended to the depths of murder.

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