Island Justice

From Publishers Weekly Set among the year-round inhabitants of a small summering spot off the New England coast, the absorbing second novel from PEN Syndicated Fiction Award winner and popular children's author Winthrop (In My Mother's House) delivers an illuminating story of a crisis of community. When antique furniture conservator Maggie Hammond inherits a rambling island house from her beloved godmother, she intends to sell the property and resume her peripatetic life. But when she falls in love with teacher and naturalist Sam Matera, a year-round resident, she changes her mindAeven after a body washes up on the nearby beach. As winter settles in, Winthrop describes the raw beauty and isolation of the island in the off-season (readers of Anne Rivers Siddons's Up Island may find similarities) and introduces other nicely realized year-rounders: Al Craven, a corrupt general contractor and the island's sheriff; dog trainer Anna Craven; their daughter Erin; Dennis Lacey, the new full-time island doctor whose marriage to a sophisticated New Yorker is on the rocks; and various, skillfully portrayed secondary characters. Balancing the love story between Maggie and Sam is the more complex tale of the attraction between Anna Craven and Dennis Lacey and the account of the Cravens' abusive marriage. Al doesn't hit Anna but he reminds her constantly that he ought to. His insidious bullying is tolerated by many on the island, but Dennis's presence makes Anna want out. When she and Erin try to make their getaway, the islanders suspect her plan and silently cheer her on. Only when the attempt fails (in a series of chillingly realistic scenes) do the islanders begin to speak out and take action. Winthrop escalates the tension and keeps the final plot twists of the Craven drama unpredictable as she brings the strengths of their community to the fore. Author tour. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus Reviews The interconnected lives and loves of a Maine island's summer and off-season people are explored with engaging warmth in a rather loose, baggy chronicle, from the author of numerous books for children and one previous adult novel, In My Mother's House (1988). As the story begins, 30ish Maggie Hammond, a consultant specializing in the restoration of antique furniture, returns to the (unnamed) island to claim the old house left to her by her late godmother. Winthrop then gradually introduces Maggie's year-round neighbors: contractor (and sheriff) Al Craven, his abused wife Anna, and their 13-year-old daughter Erin; Dennis Lacey, a newly arrived physician; Chuck Montclair, a kind of village sage who quietly observes others' conflicts; and Sam Matera, deemed ``the naturalist,'' to whom Maggie is instantly attracted. The novel springs some surprises, thanks to the skill with which Winthrop shifts the viewpoint (Maggie is by no means its sole focus). But the major actions are nevertheless contrived and predictable: A nurse who sleeps around discovers, and displays, evidence of an extramarital affair; Al's brutal treatment of Anna (and habit of slipping into Erin's bed) produces explosive results; teenagers vandalize empty houses; and Al's construction company, no straight-arrow, is discovered to be using inferior materials and bribing building inspectors. Winthrop does best in portraying Erin's baffled awareness of sex--several scenes involving kids are among the book's sharpest--but she labors too much in distinguishing ``island people'' from their less communal mainland counterparts (``we jump when the siren goes off and take chances when somebody's in trouble. . . . It's not because we're morally upright human beings. It's just because there's this circle of water around us that forces us to be that way''). Add a loose-endtying finale in which a wounded dog recovers and people get the partners they desire, and what you have is a pretty conventional melodrama after all. --