A Crime in the Neighborhood (1997)

Do you remember when an event happened during your youth that burst your idyllic bubble? For young Marsha, the main character in Suzanne Berne's A Crime In The Neighborhood, two back-to-back events rocked her world: the departure of her father and the murder of a neighborhood boy. Though unrelated, these two events became Marsha's focus during the summer of 1972, changing her life forever.

Berne deftly intermingles these two storylines throughout A Crime In The Neighborhood. We learn first that Marsha's father, Larry, was having an affair with his wife's youngest sister. Marsha's mom, Lois, finds out, and eventually Larry moves away with his mistress - all within a span of a few weeks. Marsha was daddy's little girl, not wanting to take sides, but desperately needing his father's presence in her life.

Then, a neighborhood boy is found molested and dead in nearby woods, sending shock waves over Marsha's quiet community. The neighborhood is on high alert, including Marsha, who begins observing her new neighbor, Mr. Green. She's convinced that Mr. Green is the murderer, and her young imagination begins to convince her more and more as the days progress.

Marsha is precocious, smart and observant - skills that would later serve her as an attorney. She also makes a delightful narrator. In fact, Berne did a commendable job creating all the characters, from Marsha's stoic mother to the panic-stricken neighbors. But I love Marsha's innocence and imagination the best.

A Crime In The Neighborhood can't just be characterized as a murder mystery - it has so many other layers: the state of marriage in the 1970's, political unrest with Watergate and Richard Nixon; and a coming of age tale for a young girl. Winner of the 1999 Orange Prize for Fiction, A Crime In The Neighborhood would be enjoyed by lovers of the Orange Prize and murder mystery fans alike. It truly has something for everyone. ( )

The framing device for this novel is the brutal rape and murder of a young boy in a suburban neighborhood, which is never solved. But what the book really is about are the fundamental changes our “safe” middle-class world went through in the 1970s, including divorce, senseless crime and the encroachment of the outside world on the suburban cocoons we had built for ourselves. This small, quiet novel paints a portrait of these changes in deft, succinct strokes. ( )

A typical family in a typical American community where families visit over the fences and hedges, children ride their bicycles up and down the street, neighborhood potlucks.........everything in this book is about your typical family community.............until it isn't.
The narrator, Marsha, one of three children sees a lot happen in this summer. Her father has an affair with their mother's sister and leaves the family. Her mother becomes distant and breaks off all connection with her close three sisters. Her older twin siblings spend the summer with friends and return seemingly older.
But the biggest thing that happens that summer is that a young boy in the neighborhood is molested and murdered in a small wood at the edge of the neighborhood. This, quite naturally changes the aura of the neighborhood. People become suspicious and distrustful. they stop having their get-togethers. They do whisper back and forth about who could have come into the neighborhood and committed this horror or was it one of their own?
Marsha spends her summer with a broken ankle and looking for clues where there are and aren't any. The story is based on Marsha's sleuth work and her recording of any and all occurrences that seem to be clues.
This is an interesting story, the characters are easy to identify with for the most part. I enjoyed reading it and do recommend it. I gave it 3 1/2 stars. ( )

-- I borrowed this library book because plot unfolds in Washington, D.C. where I lived for three yrs. in the eighties. A CRIME IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD is a novel about Marsha's family & neighborhood one summer in the seventies. Marsha is the storyteller. Novel is like a pearl. Using one pc. of dirt author Suzanne Berne creates an exquisite 285-pg. book. A story in capital city wouldn't be complete without politics & Watergate & Nixon's visit to China are mentioned. CRIME IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD is priceless. -- ( )

Martia narrating, nothing happened! ( )