Editorial content for The Late, Lamented Molly Marx
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Reviewer (text)
Ever wonder who would attend your funeral? Newly deceased Molly Marx gets to see that and more as she tries to decipher her past mistakes in life and the mysterious circumstances surrounding her death. One minute, she was taking a bike ride on the west side of Manhattan; the next, she arrived here. “Here” is what is referred to as “The Duration,” and to Molly it “looks and feels like an upscale fitness resort…a sunny solarium. Leaded glass windows overlook a lush park webbed with cobblestone paths where people of all ages are walking briskly as if they have places to go.” As her newly appointed guide, Bob, informs her, this is where she’ll be until she “relocates.”
Until then, she possesses the power to look down on her loved ones and see how they are coping without her. Annabel, her sweet four-year-old daughter, is too young to fully grasp the scope of a mother’s loss. There’s Barry, Molly’s plastic surgeon husband, whose roving eye has always been a bone of contention. Her parents and twin sister Lucy are devastated but trying to go on for Annabel’s sake. And then there’s poor, dear Luke Delaney, a former lover whom she never really got over.
Since the details of Molly’s death are sketchy, no one is sure if it was an accident, a suicide, or possibly even murder. Detective Hiawatha Hicks (he gets a lot of grief over that name) tries to deduce exactly what happened on the bike path that rainy day. Was her husband having an affair and perhaps wanted to be rid of his wife? Could Luke have been enraged when Molly ended things between them, and could that rage make him do something horrible to her? What about her best friend Brie? Does she have something to hide? Could it have been a random stranger? Molly watches her family and friends with rapt eagerness trying to piece together her last few moments on Earth, but also reflects back on key incidents in her life that might have brought her to this point.
Author Sally Koslow has the difficult task of making a commercial novel about a woman’s mysterious death and afterlife not morbid and depressing. It’s not THE LOVELY BONES, but more in the vein of BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY --- if Bridget Jones had unexpectedly expired and was allowed to look down on family and friends afterwards, making wry comments. Inasmuch as we relate to and sympathize with Molly’s regrets about her life, we get to see the highs as well as the lows --- the loves, the birth of a daughter, the precious time spent with family and friends. There’s also a mystery at hand: How did Molly die? Who’s responsible, if anyone, or was it just a horrible accident?
Although the flitting between genres is somewhat jarring at first, once the story draws you in, readers will find themselves racing to the end, along with Detective Hicks, to find out exactly what happened to the late, lamented Molly Marx.
Teaser
Ever wonder who would attend your funeral? Newly deceased Molly Marx gets to see that and more as she tries to decipher her past mistakes in life and the mysterious circumstances surrounding her death.
Promo
Ever wonder who would attend your funeral? Newly deceased Molly Marx gets to see that and more as she tries to decipher her past mistakes in life and the mysterious circumstances surrounding her death.
About the Book
The circumstances of Molly Marx’s death may be suspicious, but she hasn’t lost her joie de vivre. Newly arrived in the hereafter, aka the Duration, Molly, thirty-five years old, is delighted to discover that she can still keep tabs on those she left behind: Annabel, her beloved four-year-old daughter; Lucy, her combustible twin sister; Kitty, her piece-of-work mother-in-law; Brie, her beautiful and steadfast best friend; and, of course, her husband, Barry, a plastic surgeon with more than a professional interest in many of his female patients. As a bonus, Molly quickly realizes that the afterlife comes with a finely tuned bullshit detector.
As Molly looks on, her loved ones try to discern whether her death was an accident, suicide, or murder. She was last seen alive leaving for a bike ride through New York City’s Riverside Park; her body was found lying on the bank of the Hudson River. Did a stranger lure Molly to danger? Did she plan to meet someone she thought she could trust? Could she have ended her own life for mysterious reasons, or did she simply lose control of her bike? As the police question her circle of intimates, Molly relives the years and days that led up to her sudden end: her marriage, troubled yet tender; her charmed work life as a magazine decorating editor; and the irresistible colleague to whom she was drawn.
More than anything, Molly finds herself watching over Annabel–and realizing how motherhood helped to bring out her very best self. As the investigation into her death proceeds, Molly will relive her most precious moments–and take responsibility for the choices in her life.
Exploring the bonds of fidelity, family, and friendship, and narrated by a memorable and endearing character, THE LATE, LAMENTED MOLLY MARX is a hilarious, deeply moving, and thought-provoking novel that is part mystery, part love story, and all heart.
