Closed in Silence

Tyler Jones #3

by Joan M. Drury

When five women meet up at a reunion to share stories of struggle, triumph, accomplishment and pain, they also encounter a murder.

Genres: Mystery, Lesbian Fiction

195 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1998

About the author

Joan M. Drury is an American writer and former publisher of the lesbian feminist press Spinsters Ink. She has served as an editorial reader and advisor for the lesbian literary magazine Sinister Wisdom. Drury lives in Grand Marais, MN, where she is the owner of the independent bookstore Drury Lane Books.

Reviews

[Megan]

The third and last book in the Tyler Jones series finds Tyler and her BFF Mary Sharon on their way to a college reunion—kind of like a feminist The Big Chill. It seems that in the 1970s, six women met and bonded at the University of Minnesota, where they enjoyed four years of friendship and activism that shaped their lives. One of these women was Julie—Tyler’s first (and only) love. The reunion was to take place on a private island owned by Rachel, one of the six. But before any real hobnobbing between the old friends can begin, two things happen in close proximity. First, a terrible storm hits the island, leaving the women stranded and without phone service. Second—Tyler finds a dead man in the woods near the cabin.

Much of the book is taken up with Tyler’s nostalgic memories of the early exuberance of her college years. And for those of you interested in the history of feminist activism in the 1970s, Drury gives us much to think about, and she does it in true, die-hard feminist rhetoric. “Women are still getting raped and beaten, victimized by glass ceilings, harassed at work, belittled at home, ignored, demeaned.” or “We were disappointed that this professor, an obvious feminist, was reproducing the white elitism so prevalent throughout the university system.” Sometimes, she even goes over the top, as when Tyler corrects Julie on her use of the word redneck, which gives the assumption “that all outdoor working people are stupid and prejudiced and smallminded. It’s classist.”

Knowledgeable readers will see a resemblance between this novel and 1st Impressions, by Kate Calloway, in that both protagonists get trapped on an island in the Pacific Northwest with a killer on the loose and no way to get help. Drury, though, is the better writer. Although there are several incidents that seem way too coincidental, she is brazen enough—and intelligent enough—to admit it. When two unusual lightning storms hit the island within a day or two of each other, one of the characters says, “This really is like being in a mystery book. Do you realize how unusual it is for one, let alone two, lightning storms to occur in this area?” When Tyler learns that at least four of the six women on the island knew the murdered man, she is flabbergasted., but the answer she gets is classic: “I know. It’s unbelievable, isn’t it?”

Although Drury’s writing style and Tyler’s point of view are as well done here as in the first two books of the series, I was disappointed in the ending, which is not nearly as well plotted as the others. Give this one a somewhat more than a 3 and put the whole series on your reading list.

And one last thing--about poor Tyler's love life. Although poor Tyler admits to actually dating a woman named Jill back in San Francisco (she does not date at all in the first two books), she tells her friends that she knows it will not last. That's a pretty pessimistic view, but maybe she'll hook up later with one of her college friends later. Who knows?

Note: I read the first printing of the Spinster's Ink version of this novel.

AAnother Note: This review is included in my book The Art of the Lesbian Mystery Novel, along with information on over 930 other lesbian mysteries by over 310 authors.

[June Hiza]

Winner of Pulitzer Prize

[Melinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alas, this is the last of Joan Drury's lesbian-feminist mystery trilogy. Where else will I find suspenseful novels filled with radical feminist politics and rest assured that the corpse the protagonist and her dog will inevitably stumble upon will likely be that of a deserving man?

Set on a secluded island off the Pacific coast, the mystery unravels during a college reunion of sorts. Six friends meet up, for the first time in decades, to catch up and tie up loose ends. Finally, after two books of vague references to the woman who broke Tyler's heart, we get the scoop on Julie; we also meet some new characters from Tyler's past, rounding out the picture of her years at the University of Minnesota. The women have hardly settled down on the island when Tyler, as she is wont to do, stumbles across a dead body. Questions abound, exposing truths and lies. Is there a murderer in their midst?

As with her other novels, Drury uses her story to reflect on violence against women, exposing men's brutality and its impacts on women. She dabbles into the notable feminist debates of the time — here, the question of prostitution as sexual violence or a choice. You'll also find references to Andrea Dworkin and Kathleen Barry.

I'm glad to have read this book with the context of the previous two; Tyler is a familiar protagonist, and the final novel in the series builds on her past, while fleshing out unexplored aspects of her character. We've seen her in San Francisco, in northeast Minnesota, struggling with sobriety, joking with Mary Sharon, catching up with family members — and, now, reunited with the women she went to school with, it all comes together.

I do have a quibble carrying over from the previous books. Despite her otherwise feminist politics, Drury seems to have a thing for the word "slut"; Aggie the slut, Tyler the slut, and now, Mary Sharon, the "shlut." If it's meant to be a joke (and it is), it's not a very funny one.

In any case, I'm sad to see the series end, and if I'm ever in Minnesota, I will definitely pay Drury's bookstore in Grand Marais a visit.