May 01, 2017

Long Black Veil - Jennifer Finney Boylan


Crown Publishing, April 11, 2017.

 

Five Stars


 

Before reading this novel, I knew nothing about Jennifer Finney Boylan. While reading, I learned that she is known mostly for her memoirs about her life as a transgender woman, and that she published under the name James Boylan before 2001. Her work focuses on themes of gender identity and the many ways that we can be haunted by our pasts – with that in mind, this new novel is a natural progression from her non-fiction work.

 

Long Black Veil begins with a group of college friends who make the ill-fated decision to go exploring in an abandoned prison – Philadelphia’s Eastern State Penitentiary. They have just celebrated the wedding of two of their friends, Wailer and Casey, and the group is in a festive mood, even as they wander through the dark, decaying rooms of the former prison. That is, until someone locks the doors from the outside, and tragedy strikes – one member of their group goes missing, never to be seen again.

 

Twenty years later, the body of the missing friend is discovered, hidden in the ruins of the prison as it is being excavated. Casey becomes the prime suspect in the murder, and the only person who can clear his name is his best friend, who went missing after the events in the prison and is also presumed dead. In fact, Judith is living across the country in an idyllic lake house, with a loving husband and a stepson that she has raised as her own child. If she comes forward to defend Casey, she will have to expose shocking secrets from her past and risk losing her family.

 

The novel is very confusing at first, as Boylan introduces a large cast of quirky characters, all with pretty absurd names (Wailer, Tripper, Falcon, to name a few). However, this confusion works to further the mystery plot, as we don’t find out who is missing, or even who is who, until well into the book. The shifting time lines also work to increase the suspense. The central mystery of events at the prison is not very convincing, but I think it is actually secondary to the aspects of character development that make this novel special. The writing is not perfect, but it is eclipsed by the originality of the story and the authentic thoughts and feelings of the characters.

 

The twists and turns of the story might seem predictable at first, but the main one is unexpected and unique. Ultimately this is a story of mistaken identity – the identity of the murderer, and more importantly, the ways that people learn to live with their own identity. The seemingly absurd mystery plot is really just a cover for the depth of the gender identity themes that this novel explores. Like all of us, these characters are haunted not only by their pasts, but also by the ghosts of who they used to be.

 

I received this book from Crown Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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