The Gourdmother / Maggie Bruce

 The Gourdmother by Maggie Bruce

When Brooklynite Lili Marino gets a cabin out in upstate New York in lieu of payment for a writing assignment, she takes the plunge and moves to the country. Since she is newcomer to the area and to the way of life, she plans to stay home and craft gourds and do freelance writing for grocery money. Lili’s first new friend is Nora Johnson. Nora’s husband is the high school football coach and they are only black family in town, Scooter their son is

In gourd artist Bruce's strong debut, the first in her gourd craft mystery series, Brooklynite Lili Marino takes a cottage in Walden Corners, N.Y., in lieu of payment for a writing job she did for a man she never met, Tom Ford, whose foundation has just gone belly-up. She makes instant friends with the town's only black family, Henry "Coach" Johnson (who coaches high school football), wife Nora and son Scooter. When Lili finds Coach dead face down in a pond, the obvious culprit is a hunter, but nothing proves to be obvious. Bigotry, old feuds and football rivalries surface, as Lili picks up on a few smalltown problems like corporate pollution and Tom Ford's rise and fall (and rise?). Plus there's Lili's alcoholic mother, a baseball star brother, a sister she can't connect with and an attractive local guy. Bruce deftly weaves insightful instructions on dealing with grief and loss as well as details of the ancient craft of gourding into the plot. The resolution is as inevitable as it is unexpected.

Dale

01/19/07