Vera Kelly Is Not A Mystery

What\’s most delicious about Rosalie Knecht\’s Vera Kelly series is that Vera can be charming if she wants; vacant yet responsive. She\’s learned not to resist another personality and can share their same temperament and enthusiasm. … she\’s best at hiding in plain sight. It\’s easy to become lost in Knecht\’s brilliant writing (I read this over a weekend); if she were a cinematographer, her locations would be breathtaking – her paintings lustful yet serene in their elegance. Of Vera remembering her dead father, he was \’a genteel kind of person, unsure of other men, slow to join in jokes, but he had liked baseball … Little things – the hysterical murmur of color commentary on the radio – brought him back so clearly that he could have been sitting beside me in the car; and yet he answered no questions, offered no explanations. The dead linger, they stay with us, but they don\’t speak, and anyone who says different is selling something.\” What Knect also does brilliantly is place clues. Vera herself tells us who she is and that\’s what makes her endearing. In the midst of trying to find herself and in the throes of a breakup, she loses her job, both occurring the same day; the two incidents unnervingly connected. How will our heroine get out of this? This is the true mystery. She plunges in and does what she must – sees hope in a local bartender and becomes a private investigator. Her first assignment takes her out of Manhattan to the Carribean to follow the trail of Dominican exiles, with a halting stop as a social worker. And like a Eric Ambler novel, she\’s out of her depth, surprised to find herself facing extreme danger; and yet lamenting – she knows she shouldn\’t be here. But to Vera Kelly fans, the mission is always secondary; rather it\’s the psychoanalysis Knect wreaks as Vera wades through the trauma wrought by her mother, her education, her waywardness and obliviousness. In Vera Kelly is not a Mystery (I\’m grateful the title is used in the book), Vera is at her most vulnerable; lacking confidence and self esteem, she\’s at odds with her profession – where her first instinct is to lie – we see in her ourselves; awkward at pursuing a love interest, and doing everything wrong in that pursuit. Vera remains haunted by her personal problems and past and present sins and it is no wonder her first case as an investigator involves a child. Yet Knect doesn\’t allow for sappy contrition but the underpinning; however subtle, remains. And like the whisky priest in Graham Greene\’s The Power and the Glory, Vera too \”combines a great power for self destruction, a pitiful cravenness, an almost painful penitence, and a desperate quest for dignity.\” … and this is why we love her – she\’s just like us.

I hope Ms. Knecht has more in store for Vera. What a fascinating heroine she is. I already miss her. Oh, btw, I love the cover art. Im one of those people whod sometimes buy music because I loved the album cover. (Yes, Im that old). To be sure, Veras two books first caught my eye because of the art (certainly not to detract from her writing).

Loved this book. Could relate to so much of it. Lived through the 60s, have been to Argentina, know Argentine men that escaped Argentina during bad regimes to came work in the United State. Great writing, descriptions, plot and characterizations. A great read that both my husband and I enjoyed.

It\’s over and I\’m so sad. I can\’t wait for the next Vera Kelly book. This book was a pleasure to get lost in. Just what I needed!

I loved this character. She makes it happen with attitude and soul.

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