Review: A Wild and Terrifying Mystery
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 16, 2014
The Reunion (Beneath the Trap Door)By A. A. PencilFriends gather together at actress Lauryn Parker’s large home for a 10 year high school reunion. The reasons for her holding the reunion in her expensive mansion is not to renew old friendships but rather to show off her success and perhaps find a new boy toy.Annabelle, the first arrival, is pregnant with her second child and is a genuinely nice young woman, as is Samantha, a nurse who was adored by Teddy, who arrives with flowers. Taylor and Tyler soon follow, bringing their Chihuahua. They were high school sweethearts and Taylor keeps him on a tighter leash than the dog. Soon Paige Jennings joins the group, which is surprising since she's led a rough life after losing her disabled 14-year-old son to abduction. Her emaciated body and fragile demeanor signify that she is not coping well. Lauryn, typically, remarks upon her looks to Paige, and soon the small reunion of so-called friends are bickering and sniping at each other — much like the high school classmates they were 10 years ago.Remington arrives, rosary beads adorning her neck, and most of the group scatter heading for their rooms. Julian is not far behind, no happier than the rest to see her — in fact, perhaps less.  The final eight alumni arrive and reunion begins. Isabelle, a yoga instructor, is a natural black haired beauty whose entrance does not please the petty, insecure Lauryn. Joshua comes, dressed as a bum and with a bottle of liquor—immediately putting everyone else down, especially the most vulnerable.The party becomes out of control as a trivia game is played on a screen with the backgrounds of the group showing their darkest secrets. It's not a pretty scene. Oddly, many of them already know the private, often shameful details of their peers. This is no ordinary reunion, and Lauryn begins to lose all control over her guests. Some prefer to leave before their own secrets are revealed, or as the housekeeper, Deborah notes, “. . . Things are only going downhill from here." Lauryn, when asked why she would do such a thing, tells her former classmates that her assistant, Myra, organized the event which included “gathering information" on everyone — and Myra takes the fall. It's the first day of the planned three-day reunion. And the nightmare has only just begun.Author Pencil writes an enticing, fast-paced novel about a group of 15 adults who all remember each other well at their reunion. Old resentments and jealousies turn deadly making some of them work together to solve one puzzling crisis after another. The unusual and bizarre climax to this book took this reviewer totally by surprise. Readers enjoying this mystery will want to check out A. A. Pencil’s other novel, “Advent of Perpetual Sorrows” (Beneath the Trap Door), available now.Micki Peluso, author of . . . And the Whippoorwill Sang