Review: An Exciting Mystery Told In Shining Prose
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 19, 2012
There is something cleansing about THE SUNSET WITNESS. I think it's the prose of its author, Gayle Hayes. Except for a few breathtakingly speedy scenes where the pace is fevered and the style is clipped, the story is told in short, simple sentences, subject followed by predicate. Its style is transparent, shining. Conflict, sense of place, the emotions of Rachel, the main character, and the telling details of her life are conveyed as if by magic, almost in between the words. The story unfolds bit by bit; the mystery deepens; the tension rises.I was hooked from the opening line. I cared what happened to Rachel and her friends and found the book hard to put down. It's a damn good mystery, one that leaves room in the end for reader interpretation. On another level, the book is about dislocation, deception, dysfunction.The second novel by Ms. Hayes, THE SUNSET WITNESS, concerns the disappearance of Rachel Douglas who has left behind a document chronicling the recent events of her life in Sunset, Oregon. It includes just enough of her past to breathe life into her character. All events in the story occur between May 31 and June 16, 2011, the day Rachel went missing.At the start of the story, Rachel has quit her law practice in order to fulfill her dream of writing. She sublets the beach house of her friend, Sarah, taking over Sarah's waitressing job. There are scenes with fellow workers, improbable friends, handsome lovers, strange-looking beachy-type characters, fearful occurrences that go bump in the night, and underworld connections.The author uses Rachel's choice of friends and her waitressing job to flesh out her character. The reader learns that Rachel must be on time for her job, that her appearance is important, as is her organization. Above all, the customers are important to her and her description of them I found endearing. My favorite was the middle-aged woman who"wore a long, red gingham dress with puff sleeves and a flared skirt, western boots, and a wide-brimmed straw hat. Unlike so many single diners, she did not read a book while she ate. She did not even seem to notice the ocean. When I looked her way, her eyes would be closed as she held each morsel in her mouth, chewed slowly, and swallowed. Watching her eat was like watching someone pray before a shrine."Before the story ends, events take a more sinister turn, behavior become macabre, and part of the story's resolution is left to the reader's imagination. In short, THE SUNSET WITNESS is a gem of a story, an exciting mystery not to be missed, and I highly recommend it. On the strength of the book, I purchased the author's earlier work.