As a fan of James Hayman’s McCabe and Savage series, I was curious to see how he would handle ‘Two identical women. Two identical murders. Two lives brutally cut short108 years apart’. It sounded like a daunting task, but the author comes through in The Girl in the Glass.
Beginning in 1904 with the beautiful wife of a rich and powerful man discovered on a rock with the cold Maine sea spraying her nude body, the story takes off dramatically. Aimee Marie Garnier Whitby is a French artist who is married to Edward Whitby. She can’t remember how she came to be lying paralyzed on the rock on her husband’s property on Whitby Island. Carved into the young woman’s chest is the letter “A”.
One hundred and eight years later Aimee’s great-great-granddaughter Veronica Aimee is graduating from high school. Almost identical in appearance to her long-dead relative, Aimee is intelligent and beautiful and soon to be dead.
Hayman connects these murders with skill, revealing the mysteries of both in historical clues and hints at what happened to the present-day Aimee. With an extensive cast of characters, Hayman manages to keep the past separated from the present. McCabe and Savage solve the mysteries of two crimes in this tightly woven suspense-filled tale of passion, jealousy, and revenge.
Along with the solid crime story is the growing relationship between McCabe and Savage. Mike McCabe’s girlfriend Kyra has left him and he is no longer unavailable. This opens exciting possibilities for followers of the series. I know my romance antennae went up with hope and anticipation.
The characters in this book are well developed as Hayman shows his skill at creating diversity in his representations. The clever use of the journal written by Aimee of the past gives great insight into what makes her tick and how she ended up at the bottom of a cliff. Her observations of the people in her life and her responses make sense of what seems at first to be no more than a tragic death. In fact, I found the journal entries my favorite parts of the book. Hayman has a good grasp of the time period and its customs.
I’m hooked on this series and dread the day it ends. If you’re looking for a creative crime story this belongs high on your to be read list. Keep them coming, Mr. Hayman!
Blurb
Two identical women.
Two identical murders. Two lives brutally cut short
108 years apart
June 1904.
Aimée Garnier Whitby, a beautiful French artist and wife of one of Maine’s richest and most powerful men, is found near death on the Whitby family’s private summer island, the letter “A” mysteriously carved into her chest.
June 2012.
Veronica Aimée Whitby, the eighteen-year-old descendant and virtual double of the first Aimée, becomes the victim of a near perfect copycat murder. With another beautiful, promising young Whitby woman slain, the media begin to swarm and pressure builds for Mike McCabe and Maggie Savage to bring the killer quickly to justice. But the key to solving Aimée’s death just might have been buried with her beautiful ancestor.
Between the Beats 