Kinda like a literary cousin of The Rosie Project and The Thursday Murder Club, LENNY MARKS GETS AWAY WITH MURDER is a cosy knees up on the couch breezy read.
Lenny Marks is the 37 year old protagonist, a dedicated Tolkein obsessed primary school teacher in the Dandenong’s, a serious cyclist and social isolationist some would perceive to be on the spectrum.
Lenny was born Helena Winters and suffered a severe trauma twenty-five years ago. The receipt of a letter from the Parole Board triggers deep buried memories to surface, memories that hold an uncomfortable truth that has been denied for a quarter of a century.
Lenny Marks seldom found herself unprepared we are told at the very beginning of this capering tale, but what can prepare one for a trauma trigger of such magnitude, one that causes a seismic shift in a subconscious sanctuary.
A wiz at Scrabble, Lenny Marks finds it therapeutic to arrange the tiles in her head when she is stressed so the narrative is spiked with variations of a word that sparks reverie. Indeed, entire phrases, like the odious refrain, You did this. Three words. Three syllables. A mere eighteen points on a Scrabble board. And yet infuriatingly unforgettable.
Much more than a submerged murder mystery, LENNY MARKS GETS AWAY WITH MURDER is also a skewered rom com with an unlikely Mr. Darcy in a Buffy loving, game programming grocer.
Canine kidnapping, school staff-room sniping, and figments of imagination materialising combine to conjure contrasts of light and shade, charm and chills, fun and fright in this notably accomplished debut novel.
Author Kerryn Mayne is a career copper but LENNY MARKS GETS AWAY WITH MURDER is not a police procedural. It is about a crime but more tellingly it’s about the affects of crime, the survivors who must continue their lives by whatever coping mechanisms gets them through.
A smart, clever comic thriller weaving the hilarious, absurd and downright creepy, LENNY MARKS GETS AWAY WITH MURDER is justice for all who enjoy victory over victim hood.
LENNY MARKS GETS AWAY WITH MURDER by Kerryn Mayne is published by Penguin
