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Jesse Falkenstein #14
The wine of life
Robert Kinsolving is healthy, wealthy and forty-one, and has asked Jesse Falkenstein to draw up a will leaving everything to his sister, just in case. However, before signing, Kinsolving is found dead in an apparent suicide. Jesse is far from convinced, and discovers that Robert was actually not a Kinsolving at all, and anyone who may have benefited from his death is now seriously short-changed.
It now becomes Jesse's job to track down Robert's birth mother, and the mystery turns from a whodunit to a where-is-she.
'My favourite American crime-writer' New York Herald Tribune
It now becomes Jesse's job to track down Robert's birth mother, and the mystery turns from a whodunit to a where-is-she.
'My favourite American crime-writer' New York Herald Tribune
- GenresMystery
297 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 24, 2020
This outing in the series featuring lawyer Jesse Falkenstein has Jesse meeting a new client, Robert Kinsolving, a quiet investment counselor who decided it was high time he made a will gifting his small but pleasing holdings to his younger sister should he die. When Kinsolving fails to return to sign the drafted will, Jesse is horrified to learn Kinsolving died the night previous... of an apparent suicide. No one who knew Kinsolving believes for a minute that he would ever kill himself, and Jesse feels certain the careful, quiet-living client wasn't the kind to kill himself without first signing the will he'd just requested. Having legally died intestate, Kinsolving's heir will likely be the State.
Then Kinsolving's aunt throws a curveball. Kinsolving was adopted... privately. And it seems unlikely that the adoption was ever legalized. That means Jesse, as executor, must hunt for Kinsolving's birth mother and any blood relatives. It's an unholy mess.
This is another drawn-out tale of the legwork needed to break the thankless case, punctuated by scenes of Falkenstein's home life, with added incursions by the operatives of the Garrett Detective Agency... and a brief interaction with psychometrist Charles MacDonald, a psychic who takes readings from physical objects. Unlike other Lesley Egan mysteries, this one at least doesn't end with a twist out of left field, even if the mysteries prove connected to a long-ago murder.
Then Kinsolving's aunt throws a curveball. Kinsolving was adopted... privately. And it seems unlikely that the adoption was ever legalized. That means Jesse, as executor, must hunt for Kinsolving's birth mother and any blood relatives. It's an unholy mess.
This is another drawn-out tale of the legwork needed to break the thankless case, punctuated by scenes of Falkenstein's home life, with added incursions by the operatives of the Garrett Detective Agency... and a brief interaction with psychometrist Charles MacDonald, a psychic who takes readings from physical objects. Unlike other Lesley Egan mysteries, this one at least doesn't end with a twist out of left field, even if the mysteries prove connected to a long-ago murder.
November 30, 2012
I don't know where this book came from. It was on my shelf and I was looking for a quick, light read. This completely satisfied in that respect.
I was shocked this book was published in 1985. It read like something from 1965. Maybe the author, Lesley Egan, still kept the viewpoint of women in the 60s or perhaps 1985 was much more conservative than I thought. The roles of women were really stereotypical: Housewife, spinster, secretary, cold-hearted career woman. One guess as to which of these women is happy and fulfilled.
The Wine of Life also seems old-fashioned because it is a book that literally could not happen today. Jesse Falkenstein is going on a genealogical quest to find the true heirs of Robert Kinsolving. It takes the whole book to track down main players. As I read I kept thinking how much easier this search would have been today, with so many resources online. Facebook alone would have taken out thirty pages.
Lastly, so much of the writing was redundant. They find Robert Kinsolving dead, it looks like a suicide. Not only did she write every person this guy knew as saying he would have been the last person to commit such and act, but then over and over again, throughout the story, people have to say it again and again ... and again! It's a mystery, Egan really didn't need to emphasize this aspect SO much.
All-in-all, the writing was not very good, but I did enjoy the story!
I was shocked this book was published in 1985. It read like something from 1965. Maybe the author, Lesley Egan, still kept the viewpoint of women in the 60s or perhaps 1985 was much more conservative than I thought. The roles of women were really stereotypical: Housewife, spinster, secretary, cold-hearted career woman. One guess as to which of these women is happy and fulfilled.
The Wine of Life also seems old-fashioned because it is a book that literally could not happen today. Jesse Falkenstein is going on a genealogical quest to find the true heirs of Robert Kinsolving. It takes the whole book to track down main players. As I read I kept thinking how much easier this search would have been today, with so many resources online. Facebook alone would have taken out thirty pages.
Lastly, so much of the writing was redundant. They find Robert Kinsolving dead, it looks like a suicide. Not only did she write every person this guy knew as saying he would have been the last person to commit such and act, but then over and over again, throughout the story, people have to say it again and again ... and again! It's a mystery, Egan really didn't need to emphasize this aspect SO much.
All-in-all, the writing was not very good, but I did enjoy the story!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews