The Escher Twist

Better than most of the Kelly series. The M.C. Escher angle was irresistible to me and the Escher illustrations throughout were, in fact, illustrative and illuminating, giving another way (besides the text narrative) to view the story. When the story briefly veers into fantasy (Leonard going into reversal) it's less convincing, and although the circular-unending-funeral-procession theme works fairly well when filtered through the slightly dotty landlady's point of view, it doesn't fly from the perspective of Leonard the scientist. It seemed to me that the author was attempting experimental fiction, which would have been better in a short story with characters that had not previously featured in more conventional narrative. These show more episodes were mercifully few and not difficult to ignore. In the end, it was an enjoyable book to read and I appreciated Mary Kelly's larger role in this episode. show less

This is a better than average Homer Kelly story, in fact it is as much Mary as it is Homer, a development that Homer reflects upon as an indication of age and experience. There is a ‘young love’ story wrapped into the obligatory murder mystery and with the by-plot of the Kellys considering selling their house and moving to Cambridge, it seems as if Langton may be thinking of that certain stage of life. The Escher theme is well-crafted and closely aligned with the orientation of the protagonist, Leonard, a crystallographer and his would-be girlfriend. The setting, and the story hinges on an Escher image that suggests a meeting of two worlds, as if through a mirror. There is a bit of the supernatural as Leonard seemingly flips from show more one side of the ‘picture’ to the other, but this twist doesn’t really get off the ground in terms of either driving the plot or creating suspense, though the idea is intriguing. show less

I've read and enjoyed a number of Jane Langton's Homer Kelly mysteries but this one left me cold. A bit of a clunker, with plot lines that I never really followed and a grand wrapping up that seemed to make very little sense out of it all.

This was confusing and not very good, probably the least satisfying of the Homer Kelly mysteries that I've read. It was unclear which woman Frieda, the main character, was during much of the story. Maybe I was supposed to be confused.

A fun, light read, especially entertaining if you know the Cambridge, Mass., area.

i hated this. what did escher have to do with it? who were these people?

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