The Quadrangle

Issue date: 10/6/04 Section: Arts & Entertainment

There is something inevitably engaging about a good mystery. Be it a movie, sitcom, or book, it is these mystery plot lines that draw in the crowds. These days anything that is well written is rare. Moreover, it is rare to find anything that places great importance on the value of family to be appealing rather than cheesy or campy. Imagine the surprise to find a well-written mystery novel that has the importance of family as its main motif. Wild Orchids by Jude Deveraux is an impressive novel that has managed to pull such a feat off with skill.

It is unusual to find an author that can weave together a number of different characters with their own backgrounds, each of which are important to the story line. It is also difficult to write a single cohesive story from the first person perspective of two different people. As mentioned in the past, writing alternating chapters from the perspective of a different character (only two in this one) often will leave the reader swamped in details. Ms. Deveraux manages to pull this type of writing off with out wallowing in the boring details of these various lives, but makes the two main characters/narrators so dynamic as people that the reader is drawn in, from the heart-wrenching tragedy of Ford Newcombe, to the infuriating yet strangely humorous failed wedding and overall life of Jackie Maxwell.

Ms. Deveraux was previously a genre writer (and perhaps she still is). Her genre was the romance novel. (People are often far too judgmental of the romance novel. Take a good hard look at some classic literature and you will find glorified romance novels. For example Great Expectations, Jane Eyre, anything by the Bronte's or by Jane Austin.) This genre is characterized by a certain character dynamic (as well as particular focus points plot wise). One can see how this character dynamic has translated well to this book, which comes across as a hybrid of a mystery, romance and a tribute to the importance of family.

Characters are the backbone of any plotline, and if the characters do not work, and do not work well together, then the plotline will be inherently unbelievable. (Case in point Star Wars: Phantom Menace. What does Amidala see in Anakin?! Moreover what drug were they on when the writers created Jar Jar Binks.) All too often, entertainment today has been ignoring the importance of character dynamic. Thankfully this is not the case with Wild Orchids, and this meshing is becoming an increasingly rare thing.

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