When wealthy British matriarch Stilet Toes dies, seemingly of natural causes, a large and motley bunch of relatives descend on the family mansion to learn the contents of her will. What they’re told by the solicitor sparks an esoteric mystery with roots stretching far back in time.
Written by Mr. Elex Icon, FROGS & FOG: A Murkmire Mystery is presented in a fashion that recalls Agatha Christie: a quaint English estate in the countryside, a set of loyal servants, a big to-do over the will of a dead woman, and a cast of over-the-top characters—each of whom becomes a suspect after it’s revealed that Stilet was in fact murdered.
The mysterious “family fortune” goes to Rea List, the novel's main character. Shortly after the will is read, Rea finds a hidden note written by the deceased and addressed to her, stating that cause of death was murder and instructing Rea to find the killer. Thus, Rea becomes an amateur detective bent on unraveling the family’s secretive past.
FROGS & FOG blends realism and fantasy. Supernatural things happen at the Murkmire Manor, a place that “seemed to have thoughts of its own.” Inanimate objects move of their own accord. Vines try to grab people. Trees sigh. Books scream. Fog shrouds the property day and night.
Icon relies heavily on imagery to establish mood—arguably to a fault. References to the foggy weather occur so often that they begin to feel redundant and mechanical. A description of the fog curling and clinging outside the manor (those two verbs and their variants are used dozens of times) opens many, if not most, of the book’s 74 chapters. At one point a descriptive sentence is duplicated in the span of two pages. First we’re told that the gallery “smelled like a forgotten century. There was the faint bite of old wood polish, the dry sourness of mothballs and an undercurrent of ancient paint.” Two pages later we read that the alcove “smelled like a forgotten century. There was the faint bite of old wood polish, the dry sourness of mothballs, and an undercurrent of something metallic.” It’s hard to see how that particular mistake could have been made, but it was.
On the other hand, the story’s pacing and buildup are handled with skill, and an element of suspense is sustained throughout. The dialogue is lively and sometimes humorous. Although much of it is unrealistic, one finds it easy to imagine Icon’s characters speaking as they do. Meanwhile, it’s more or less impossible to guess who the killer is: the story builds to a climax that is sufficiently surprising.
Faults of style aside, Mr. Elex Icon's FROGS & FOG: A Murkmire Mystery is a well-structured whodunit by which avid fans of the mystery genre are likely to be entertained—particularly if they’re partial to esoteric and supernatural themes.
~ Michael Howard for IndieReader