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The Scarlet Macaw
Two entwined mysteries unfold in two time periods in Singapore — one in the present and the other in the 1920s. Artist Maris Cousins has lived in Singapore for four years, but the sudden death of her mentor, gallery owner Peter Stone, causes her to stop painting and leave Singapore to reconnect with her family in Canada. There she becomes immersed in the fictional stories of love and betrayal from Singapore's past — in first editions left to her by Stone — written by a famous early-20th-century author, E. Sutcliffe Moresby.
Drawn back to Singapore and the gallery, she searches for answers to the mystery of three people — a writer, his young wife, and their baby — who seem to be linked to Stone. But along the way, Maris becomes caught up in circumstances involving smuggling and possibly murder.
Drawn back to Singapore and the gallery, she searches for answers to the mystery of three people — a writer, his young wife, and their baby — who seem to be linked to Stone. But along the way, Maris becomes caught up in circumstances involving smuggling and possibly murder.
392 pages, Paperback
First published May 19, 2013
33 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
January 25, 2019
I enjoyed reading this multi layered story. The characters were interesting and the stories seemed to be related. I was curious to see how it all linked up.
I could not give this book 5 stars because the ending was very abrupt. It seems in the last couple of chapters that the author became bored and just decided to wtap it all up with a neat bow.I felt there were many different ways this could have continued and a few different possible endings. So I started on a high and felt dissatisfied by the end
3.5 stars
I could not give this book 5 stars because the ending was very abrupt. It seems in the last couple of chapters that the author became bored and just decided to wtap it all up with a neat bow.I felt there were many different ways this could have continued and a few different possible endings. So I started on a high and felt dissatisfied by the end
3.5 stars
May 14, 2015
The The Scarlet Macaw by S P Hozy started off promising enough but it started to sag with the weight of the arbitrarily related sub-plots. Makjang-style Korean dramas would be proud. -_-
It's like the blurb about the smuggling was written first, and the author forgot about how to work in the storyline until the last few chapters. Yes, one of the characters was tasked to work on that, but there was zero development on that front all the way until the end. Then bam, it's artificially linked to something somewhere. Tada!
It's like the blurb about the smuggling was written first, and the author forgot about how to work in the storyline until the last few chapters. Yes, one of the characters was tasked to work on that, but there was zero development on that front all the way until the end. Then bam, it's artificially linked to something somewhere. Tada!
September 25, 2013
Wheels Within Wheels, Gyres Within Gyres
In contemporary Singapore, successful artist Maris is enjoying a quiet dinner at home with her boyfriend Peter, an art and antiques dealer. Suddenly Peter appears to have suffered a stroke.
Frantic, she watches his inert body for ten minutes of eternity: “It reminded her of the way penguins buried their heads in their chests to sleep.” Paramedics do their impotent best; then she heads to the hospital, wondering where his reading glasses went and mindlessly worrying about the fish they never got to eat. Facing the fact that he is dead, Maris notifies his half-sister Dinah, who runs his upscale gallery. They must talk to Angela, his ex-wife in Germany and a mainstay of his business in Europe.
Angela is far from likable, but is she involved with the death since she will inherit? Maris considers her ex-rival: “She’s built like a boning knife: all precision, balance, and sharpness….Nothing drooped, nothing sagged. Give it another five years and she’d be getting the eye job and the Botox injections.”
Peter has been poisoned by a dose of choral hydrate in his bottle of Campari . Easy enough, especially if he drank from it every night. But why and by whom? The police are satisfied that Maris has nothing to gain. Her art sales are blossoming at Peter’s gallery. Totally drained and unable to work, she heads home to her eccentric family in British Columbia. She grew up with flower children parents: Spirit meets Freedom Man. Hozy portrays hippie history with a steely eye for the consequences of decisions.
Then the gyre takes a spin, giving the plot an unexpected turn. In an old leather trunk Peter designated for Maris are curious paintings and sketches as well as letters from 1923 involving Annabelle in England, her fiancée in Malaysia, Francis, and his wealthy friend Edward (Sutty), who wants the lovers to reunite even at his own cost. Yet, love aside, how can the feckless Francis make a living from his writing, let alone live the ex-patriot life? Even those with “The Company” had best marry late, after prospects improve, and are warned against bringing English roses to the tropical swelter of the rainforest.
As the writing style shifts ninety years without missing a beat, Francis writes to “dearest Annabelle”: “To say that I miss you is to put into cheap, inadequate words a longing that surpasses anything I have ever felt. I am here with Sutty and we have settled into the Raffles Hotel….Sutty says that if I don’t stop moping around like a lovesick old elephant he’s going to turn me into a character in one of his books and have me die a horrible death.” Later, these words will haunt the reader, at this early stage happily time-travelling into Somerset Maugham’s Miss Thompson.
But yet another dimension waits in the next chapters with short stories from the same period. Is Sutty chronicling the life of his friends? “It’s not often that I’m invited to attend a wedding on my travels,” the author within the author says, and the reader relaxes with a G and T. Later stories involve the same people with different endings. Has life turned into fiction or vice versa? There are surfaces under surfaces, time warps and modulations few writers can juggle. Sutty seemed so real that I looked him up on Google.
Hozy, who lives in Thailand herself, has absorbed the local colour, climate, and history. Details like James Brooke, an English soldier who became the Rajah of Sarawak, are compelling. Brooke was real, which keeps the reader guessing about the rest.
The reader hovers delightedly off balance, eager for the next installment of the old story, but waiting for the advancement of the new. When will they blend? Who killed Peter? What happened to Annabelle and her son? Did they return to England or did they perish roaming the netherworld of life on Singapore backstreets, where a poor woman has only one career, one which should not be whispered in good company?
Hozy has made herself the Literary Queen of Expats in this exotic part of the world. Her other locales involve Shanghai, Thailand, and India.
In contemporary Singapore, successful artist Maris is enjoying a quiet dinner at home with her boyfriend Peter, an art and antiques dealer. Suddenly Peter appears to have suffered a stroke.
Frantic, she watches his inert body for ten minutes of eternity: “It reminded her of the way penguins buried their heads in their chests to sleep.” Paramedics do their impotent best; then she heads to the hospital, wondering where his reading glasses went and mindlessly worrying about the fish they never got to eat. Facing the fact that he is dead, Maris notifies his half-sister Dinah, who runs his upscale gallery. They must talk to Angela, his ex-wife in Germany and a mainstay of his business in Europe.
Angela is far from likable, but is she involved with the death since she will inherit? Maris considers her ex-rival: “She’s built like a boning knife: all precision, balance, and sharpness….Nothing drooped, nothing sagged. Give it another five years and she’d be getting the eye job and the Botox injections.”
Peter has been poisoned by a dose of choral hydrate in his bottle of Campari . Easy enough, especially if he drank from it every night. But why and by whom? The police are satisfied that Maris has nothing to gain. Her art sales are blossoming at Peter’s gallery. Totally drained and unable to work, she heads home to her eccentric family in British Columbia. She grew up with flower children parents: Spirit meets Freedom Man. Hozy portrays hippie history with a steely eye for the consequences of decisions.
Then the gyre takes a spin, giving the plot an unexpected turn. In an old leather trunk Peter designated for Maris are curious paintings and sketches as well as letters from 1923 involving Annabelle in England, her fiancée in Malaysia, Francis, and his wealthy friend Edward (Sutty), who wants the lovers to reunite even at his own cost. Yet, love aside, how can the feckless Francis make a living from his writing, let alone live the ex-patriot life? Even those with “The Company” had best marry late, after prospects improve, and are warned against bringing English roses to the tropical swelter of the rainforest.
As the writing style shifts ninety years without missing a beat, Francis writes to “dearest Annabelle”: “To say that I miss you is to put into cheap, inadequate words a longing that surpasses anything I have ever felt. I am here with Sutty and we have settled into the Raffles Hotel….Sutty says that if I don’t stop moping around like a lovesick old elephant he’s going to turn me into a character in one of his books and have me die a horrible death.” Later, these words will haunt the reader, at this early stage happily time-travelling into Somerset Maugham’s Miss Thompson.
But yet another dimension waits in the next chapters with short stories from the same period. Is Sutty chronicling the life of his friends? “It’s not often that I’m invited to attend a wedding on my travels,” the author within the author says, and the reader relaxes with a G and T. Later stories involve the same people with different endings. Has life turned into fiction or vice versa? There are surfaces under surfaces, time warps and modulations few writers can juggle. Sutty seemed so real that I looked him up on Google.
Hozy, who lives in Thailand herself, has absorbed the local colour, climate, and history. Details like James Brooke, an English soldier who became the Rajah of Sarawak, are compelling. Brooke was real, which keeps the reader guessing about the rest.
The reader hovers delightedly off balance, eager for the next installment of the old story, but waiting for the advancement of the new. When will they blend? Who killed Peter? What happened to Annabelle and her son? Did they return to England or did they perish roaming the netherworld of life on Singapore backstreets, where a poor woman has only one career, one which should not be whispered in good company?
Hozy has made herself the Literary Queen of Expats in this exotic part of the world. Her other locales involve Shanghai, Thailand, and India.
August 10, 2013
The Scarlet Macaw by S. P. Hozy is less a mystery than a careful examination of stories and how they are told--an examination of who we are and how we got that way and a parable of love. loyalty, and loss.
Maris Cousins is an artist living in Singapore. She left her home in Canada in search of inspiration and she found it when she met Peter Stone of the Stone Art Gallery in Singapore. Peter recognized the talent and passion in Maris's work and gently encouraged her to become the artist she could be. Maris is devastated when Peter is murdered with poison in his favorite drink. Her art has been dedicated to color--and the use of color is how she tells her stories through painting. When Peter dies, all of the color drains out of her life. The colors no longer speak to her and she heads back to Toronto.
She takes with her a trunk full of items willed to her by Peter. The trunk's contents are primarily first editions by author E. Sutcliffe Moresby and a set of paintings signed "A.S." There is also a bundle of letters. Maris works her way through the books and a few of the letters and wonders why on earth Peter bequeathed her a set of stories about love and betrayal, loyalty and loss set in early twentieth century Singapore. After a brief respite in Toronto, Maris returns to Singapore where she will find herself involved in her own story of love and betrayal. There is the solution to Peter's murder to be found and a smuggling operation that hits a little too close to home. But along the way Maris will find her way back to the colors through which she can tell her own stories.
Hozy weaves her tale of Maris and modern-day Singapore with short stories by the fictional author Moresby as well as flashbacks to early twentieth-century Singapore and a pair of young lovers from England who try to make a life in that foreign place. She uses all of these to explore her themes--the power of story, the power of love, the power of betrayal. She tells the same tale from various viewpoints and in stories from two different centuries.
I thoroughly enjoyed jumping between time periods and the multiple narrators were expertly handled. Hozy's prose is fluid and beautiful and I hated to put the book down. The weak point for me is the mystery-element. I didn't really feel like there was much doubt who killed Peter and, as soon as a certain topic was brought up, why. Unfortunately, that isn't actually resolved--we're left with a clear pointer, but it's not stated straight-out. It also was little disappointing that the flashbacks had so little to do with the modern mystery--since the book was billed as a mystery at the local library, I would have liked the historical story to be more closely tied to the modern events. But those are minor quibbles. This is an excellent read and worth every point on all four stars.
This was first posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
Maris Cousins is an artist living in Singapore. She left her home in Canada in search of inspiration and she found it when she met Peter Stone of the Stone Art Gallery in Singapore. Peter recognized the talent and passion in Maris's work and gently encouraged her to become the artist she could be. Maris is devastated when Peter is murdered with poison in his favorite drink. Her art has been dedicated to color--and the use of color is how she tells her stories through painting. When Peter dies, all of the color drains out of her life. The colors no longer speak to her and she heads back to Toronto.
She takes with her a trunk full of items willed to her by Peter. The trunk's contents are primarily first editions by author E. Sutcliffe Moresby and a set of paintings signed "A.S." There is also a bundle of letters. Maris works her way through the books and a few of the letters and wonders why on earth Peter bequeathed her a set of stories about love and betrayal, loyalty and loss set in early twentieth century Singapore. After a brief respite in Toronto, Maris returns to Singapore where she will find herself involved in her own story of love and betrayal. There is the solution to Peter's murder to be found and a smuggling operation that hits a little too close to home. But along the way Maris will find her way back to the colors through which she can tell her own stories.
Hozy weaves her tale of Maris and modern-day Singapore with short stories by the fictional author Moresby as well as flashbacks to early twentieth-century Singapore and a pair of young lovers from England who try to make a life in that foreign place. She uses all of these to explore her themes--the power of story, the power of love, the power of betrayal. She tells the same tale from various viewpoints and in stories from two different centuries.
I thoroughly enjoyed jumping between time periods and the multiple narrators were expertly handled. Hozy's prose is fluid and beautiful and I hated to put the book down. The weak point for me is the mystery-element. I didn't really feel like there was much doubt who killed Peter and, as soon as a certain topic was brought up, why. Unfortunately, that isn't actually resolved--we're left with a clear pointer, but it's not stated straight-out. It also was little disappointing that the flashbacks had so little to do with the modern mystery--since the book was billed as a mystery at the local library, I would have liked the historical story to be more closely tied to the modern events. But those are minor quibbles. This is an excellent read and worth every point on all four stars.
This was first posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
January 25, 2016
Artist Maris is about to have dinner with her friend Peter, an art gallery owner in Singapore when he suddenly dies. What Maris thinks is a stroke turns out to be murder. Grief stricken, she flies home to Canada, taking with her the trunk of books, paintings and letters, all dating from the 1920s, that Peter has mysteriously left her in his will. Will the contents of the truck yield clues to his murder?
While the setting and time shifts in this story were interesting, the actions of some of the characters seemed unbelievable; this, plus a number of small factual errors in the Vancouver setting of the story and the author's tendency to repeat the same information over and over lessened my overall enjoyment of the story.
While the setting and time shifts in this story were interesting, the actions of some of the characters seemed unbelievable; this, plus a number of small factual errors in the Vancouver setting of the story and the author's tendency to repeat the same information over and over lessened my overall enjoyment of the story.
December 4, 2013
When art dealer Peter is killed, it sends his friend Maris, a painter, reeling back to her mother in Canada. He has left Maris a trunk full of mysterious items, including the complete works of an English writer mildly popular in the 1920's and afterward. There are also paintings by "AS" and some old love letters. As she tries to untangle the relationship among these objects, she also decides to move back to Singapore and work in Peter's gallery along with his half-sister Dinah. Interesting, in depth characters; much discussion of the meaning of art.
July 17, 2013
This was a wonderfully written mystery. The stories of the present and 1920s Singapore are woven together leading reader to the key to the mystery, all while providing stories of friendship, love, disloyalty and infidelity. What I did find a little disappointing was the ending, leaving me feeling as if there should have been more to it, as if it were unfinished. Overall, I really enjoyed this book.
September 7, 2015
Prior to flying to Southeast Asia last January, I googled books set in Singapore and found this one. Score! The is a pretty good who-dunnit that begins with a mysterious death and then moves flawlessly between the present and the 1920s in Singapore as the crime is solved. As we scooted around Singapore we often thought about where the book would have been set and the bonus is that we discovered the oft mentioned Raffles Hotel.
August 27, 2014
mystery (1920s-30s/current-day Singapore). Not really satisfying as a mystery, but there were subplots to unravel, and I learned a tiny bit about Singapore (muggy! hot! monsoony! various cuisines to sample!)
August 2, 2016
One of the worst books I have ever read. Starts out interesting then falls completely flat. First 3 pages mention the murder mystery then it is completely forgotten about until the last page as an, "oh, yeah, this was the killer...." rest of the book leads nowhere.
September 17, 2012
Set in two time periods -- Singapore of the 1920s and current day Singapore. International intrigue in the art world...
July 4, 2013
First time I've read this author. Loved the intertwined stories but didn't like the ending.
October 2, 2013
The author had an elegant way of telling several stories, set in different times. Typically I don't appreciate that type of book, but this one was done well. I would recommend it.
June 30, 2014
I grabbed this book from the library due to its title and then its Singapore setting. It had some neat ideas, but the writing style could not live up to the goals of the narrative.
December 22, 2014
good book if you like books about artists.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews