BWW Reviews: MACDEATH by Cindy Brown

Ask a theater lover what kind of music they like, and they will invariable say Sondheim or Andrew Lloyd Webber. Ask what they do for fun, and the answer will usually involve tickets to a play. Anyone who recognizes themself as 'born in a trunk' will want to add Cindy Brown's new mystery novel, MACDEATH, to their reading list. As the title suggests, the light-hearted mystery thriller takes on the venerable Scottish play and the superstitions surrounding the time-worn tragedy. The book is billed as an "Ivy Meadows Mystery" - the first of a series. Ivy is something akin to a modern Nancy Drew - an eager young actress turned sleuth in present-day Phoenix, Arizona.

When the book begins, Ivy (nee Olive Ziegwart) has just been cast in an inventive new staging of the Shakespeare classic re-set under the Big Top. Any resemblance to the latest circus-themed revival of "Pippin" is purely intentional, I'm sure. As one of the three witches, Ivy makes her first entrance wearing tights, emerging from a giant caldron lowered to the stage. She shares the footlights with a local TV newscaster ("the Face of Channel 10"), an alcoholic movie star ("James Bomb"), and an overly-amorous leading man - all led by a kooky carrot-munching director. Brown has a keen eye for character but an even keener eye for her characters' eyes; nary a chapter goes by that she isn't found rhapsodizing on her characters' peepers - the windows of the soul (an analogy often credited to the Bard).

Ivy's Uncle Bob is a gumshoe himself, so when one of her cast mates turns up dead it's a minor leap to add P.I. to her C.V. As the fast-paced novel goes on, Ivy turns up the heat on her suspects until she cracks the case. Speaking of which, the Arizona heat is another thing that Brown seems to know a lot about. The colorful book is full of vivid descriptions of the uniquely arid Phoenix weather.

"'My name is Ivy Meadows, and I am an actress.' The affirmation was working about as good as the air-conditioning. The hundred-and-one degree day wasn't bad for August but skyscraper-tall thunderheads made the air unusually muggy. My blouse was beginning to stick to my armpits. 'My name is Ivy Meadows, and I am an actress.' The car was heating up, but the affirmation was sounding better."

Brown also seems to know her way around the desert city's regional theater scene. Some 2,412 miles off Broadway, she colorfully creates theatrical characters that live somewhere south of Sedona and west of "Waiting for Guffman." Cleverly, Brown heads each of her bite-sized chapters with a quote from the troublesome Shakespeare play itself. In the style of the great Stephen King, Brown peppers her narrative with pop culture references, including a poisoned "Big Gulp."

Ivy's personal life seems a bit underdeveloped in the hurried plot, but we can look forward to her continued adventures in "The Sound of Murder" later this year. If the title is any indication, Ivy will be solving a problem like (a murdered) Maria. It's not difficult to imagine Brown's heroine having a film or television life, mixing her love for the stage with her knack for crime-solving in the humid Arizona desert. The book has already received a staged reading by a Portland theater troupe - so move over Nancy Drew, Ivy Meadows has arrived - acting resume in hand.

MacDeath by Cindy Brown

published by Henery Press www.henerypress.com

Available from Amazon.com in Kindle, hardcover, and paperback editions

To post a comment, you must register and login.