Landscape
(Donna Cousins)
Is there anything creepier than finding bio-hazardous medical waste in a place you''d least expect it? Say, syringes, an angioplasty ring or parts of blood filters washing up on a sandy beach, or in the earth around a prize rose garden where your young daughter''s puppy digs? Donna Cousins has put this horror center stage in her first suspense novel. Right from the beginning we know we''re in for something different. This author understands the intricacies of banking, small business, medical products and professional landscaping?most literary writers only know books, teaching and more books. The author''s use of omniscient point of view to follow different characters, short chapters and an absence of description (other than that of plants) distance the reader at first. But as this plot-driven novel progresses those choices allow tension to build quickly, and Cousins sensibility to interpersonal dynamics?also unusual even for a female mystery writer?adds real menace when the members of the central figure''s family are threatened. It turns out no detail we are given is insignificant and things are not always what they seem. By the way, did you know that the average hospital generates over eight thousand tons of regulated medical waste per month? LANDSCAPE is more than a page-turner. There are subtle touches. When the husband resists a kiss by a woman who he is attracted to, we read, "The bee on the sill buzzed noisily and flew smack against the glass." Raymond Chandler metaphors watch out! Could Cousins have made more of the setting, atmosphere and characters? Yes, the LA locations do seem generic, and there isn''t one character I either care about or dislike more than the next; but scenes between people are strong and this is a writer who can dramatize action, spring surprises and deliver a satisfying, even inspiring, denouement. Plus, the fifty-page climax of the book is one of the most exhilarating stretches of suspense writing I''ve read in ages. "Make it new," Ezra Pound once entreated poets. Donna Cousins has done just that for mysteries. And those who read them as well as those who don''t should stand up and applaud.
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