The Girl at the End of the Line Author:Charles Mathes Molly O'Hara's young sister Nell is beautiful, spirited, and sweet, and the fact that she hasn't spoken for the last seventeen years -- since she was eight -- certainly doesn't reflect on her intelligence. After all, it's Nell who does the books for Enchanted Cottage Antiques, which she and her sister operate jointly. Truth i... more »s, Nell was home alone with their mother when the woman was murdered, and from that day forward Nell hasn't spoken. She understands, she can make herself understood; it's just that she doesn't utter a word.
Rummaging in boxes at a tag sale, Nell comes across an old New York theater Playbill that will change the girls' lives. It will break the monotony of their rather lonely existence in the small North Carolina town from which they have never ventured -- and will also shatter the peace they've managed to achieve there. It will send them rocketing to New York, to England, and to New England, in search of a family they didn't know they had. And it will introduce them -- and the reader -- to as zany a group of relatives as ever bickered over a dog show or a fortune.
The cover of the program bears a photo of a lovely young actress in her first big part on the New York stage. And amazingly, the woman is their crusty old grandmother. But when they rush to question the old woman, they arrive to find that she has baffled the medical staff, who saw no reason to expect it, by dying in her bed.
The sisters, and especially Molly, who is more stubborn and "goal-oriented" by nature, realize that somewhere they have a family. But in their town, the only sources of information are their stepfather, whom they almost never see -- and he can't, or won't tell them much -- and their natural father, who is married to a wealthy society woman and is embarrassed by his somewhat unconventional offspring and eager to shoo them away. So they determine to go off on a search of their own.
Their travels bring adventure and exhilaration as they have the new and wonderful experience of seeing New York and London and meeting such exotic fauna as professional actors. But it also brings tragedy as "accidents" occur around them, starting with a fatal explosion in their house when they are away. These are dauntless young women, though, and charming ones, and the reader will very much enjoy going along with them on their eye-opening journeys, and will root for them all along the way.« less
Charles Mathes is a unique author. His mysteries, which are not series books, nevertheless carry a common theme, that of a woman who has no real past, who doesn'tknow her family or ancestors. But, through some curious turn of events, she has to dig and search and discover who she is and what the family secrets are. The books are wonderful, different, and even charming, though not consciously so. When I accidentally happened onto one of them, I had to have the others immediately. No one else writes anything quite like these stories. Get them and read them!
Charles Mathes is a unique author. His mysteries, which are not series books, nevertheless carry a common theme, that of a woman who has no real past, who doesn'tknow her family or ancestors. But, through some curious turn of events, she has to dig and search and discover who she is and what the family secrets are. The books are wonderful, different, and even charming, though not consciously so. When I accidentally happened onto one of them, I had to have the others immediately. No one else writes anything quite like these stories. Get them and read them!
Patricia S. reviewed The Girl at the End of the Line on
predictable. utterly, totally predictable. The main one character was somewhat developed. The other characters were so very flat that they more like walking single character traits to be there to help create a story for the main character. Oh, our hero is poor. Of course, she becomes fabulously rich. Aw, she lost her house and wants to live in a castle. One castle coming up. Aw, she misses her mother and wants a family, one instant, extended ancestral family coming up. She falls in love, so her sister is now a burden, surprise! Her sister's 20 year old medical and physcological condition instantly cured and the sister immediately leaves and becomes successful, so no guilt for not wanting to take care of her sister. Friend hinted at being a lesbian. Bomb. No more problem.
Not the worse book I have ever read, but certainly the one with the least character development and one of the most predictable.
From the back of the book:
Neill O'Hara hasn't spoken in the seventeen years since she witnessed her mother's murder. When Neil and older sister Molly discover their grandmother has died under suspicious circumstances, they decide it's high time to find out why sudden death seems to run in their family.
An old Broadway playbill leads them to secrets of their grandmother's scandalous past in New York and then on a merry chase to London and back to Vermont, where they are introduced to the family they never knew...a rich and eccentric bunch.
The sisters follow a trail of adventure and mystery that sweeps from America to England, and finally to a secluded island on the Atlantic coast where a chilling legacy of murder awaits.
