Book Review: Ours Is A Tale Of Murder by Nora Murphy

This multiple point-of-view novel has some truly exciting twists, as three households in the otherwise quiet Maryland neighborhood of Hawthorne Heights are set on a collision course that won’t end at just murder.

Mary knows the trauma of this kind of thing firsthand. Years ago, she did her best to keep the peace between her abusive husband Ed and her sensitive son Owen. Things did not go well. Now she’s preparing her home for sale, as she’s gotten too old to maintain the house by herself and could definitely benefit from moving to a smaller place. Clearing out the rooms in anticipation of this brings back memories both fond and terrible, especially of the night that changed everything:

People hear the news of such tragedies, and they feel the cool plunge of horror. How awful. How sad. But [it’s] startlingly easy for people to move on, to still consider Hawthorne Heights a safe and desirable place to live.

 

Even in this room–this young boy’s room, the bedroom of her sweet boy–Mary can feel the terror of that night. She can taste it like something sour and rotten coating her tongue. While outside, in the other brick-front colonials, up and down this tree-lined street, boring and pleasant life moves on. [Neighbors] wave to each other while they retrieve their mail, their thoughts so far from that blood-soaked night twenty years ago, in this particular house, when Mary’s life shattered.

Mary isn’t the only resident of Hawthorne Heights contemplating a move.Janet is less than thrilled that her adult son Henry has moved back in with her and her husband, and is constantly warning him of her own desire to downsize. Henry pays little mind, busy as he is with spying on the couple who’ve recently moved in across the street. The wife, especially, fascinates him, as he tries to figure out ways to get to know her better.

Their perspectives are all given in the third person, but perhaps the most visceral story here is told by Klara, the novel’s only first-person voice. Her new marriage feels like a trap, with this house in the suburbs a prison to keep her from being her own person. Her romance with her husband Troy was a whirlwind, but now that she spends most of her days in Hawthorne Heights, she’s beginning to see how much of herself she’s given away – and how much Troy has taken from her – under the guise of giving her everything she could ever desire:

I know I’m a good lawyer–was a good lawyer. Better than anyone at securing favorable settlements for my clients. And that job was my purpose. You’ve never explained your plan, [Troy,] but I can see what you’re doing, as though you’re setting up plays on a chessboard. You’ve pulled me away from the only home I’ve known for the last ten years, into this unfamiliar suburb that feels improbably remote, where I’ve got nothing else but you. Your plan is growing clearer, while I’m too sick and too tired to come up with a plan of my own. Besides, on paper it’s all so perfect. Why would I need a plan at all? Who would I ever want to leave? What’s so wrong with me that sometimes leaving is all I can think about?

As their three narratives converge, an act of hideous violence rocks Hawthorne Heights once more. Who will survive and who will escape, as deadly games of cat and mouse are played behind the seemingly peaceful walls of this picture perfect neighborhood?

I’ll freely admit that the first half of this book was a little rough for me as a Maryland resident trying to wrap my head around some of the unlikely travel times, but the second half not only gave me a plausible reason for them, it also underscored how deeply clever and humane this novel truly is. Between Troy, Ed and Henry, it can be hard to remember that not all men are terrible. Thankfully, Nora Murphy deftly rebalances the scales with more than one unexpected plot twist. Make no mistake though, this inventive novel is very much about women standing up for each other and for themselves, even when it involves making some of the hardest but most deeply necessary decisions of your life.