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Emma Graham #4
Fadeaway Girl
The beguiling young sleuth Emma Graham returns.
Martha Grimes returns to her twelve-year-old heroine, Emma Graham, in this suspenseful sequel to the bestselling Belle Ruin. Emma continues her investigation into the strange disappearance of the four- month-old Slade baby from the Belle Ruin Hotel more than twenty years before. The sudden appearance in town of the baby's father, Morris Slade, makes her even more determined to learn the truth. Then a mysterious drifter named Ralph Diggs appears at the Hotel Paradise, looking for work, ingratiating himself with everyone there. Everyone, that is, except Emma.
The perceptive Emma is bound once again to delight fans of the previous books Hotel Paradise, Cold Flat Junction, and Belle Ruin, and certain to win new readers with her intuition and humor.
Martha Grimes returns to her twelve-year-old heroine, Emma Graham, in this suspenseful sequel to the bestselling Belle Ruin. Emma continues her investigation into the strange disappearance of the four- month-old Slade baby from the Belle Ruin Hotel more than twenty years before. The sudden appearance in town of the baby's father, Morris Slade, makes her even more determined to learn the truth. Then a mysterious drifter named Ralph Diggs appears at the Hotel Paradise, looking for work, ingratiating himself with everyone there. Everyone, that is, except Emma.
The perceptive Emma is bound once again to delight fans of the previous books Hotel Paradise, Cold Flat Junction, and Belle Ruin, and certain to win new readers with her intuition and humor.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published February 3, 2011
118 people are currently reading
756 people want to read
About the author
Martha Grimes
114 books1,455 followersMartha Grimes is an American author of detective fiction.
She was born May 2 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to D.W., a city solicitor, and to June, who owned the Mountain Lake Hotel in Western Maryland where Martha and her brother spent much of their childhood. Grimes earned her B.A. and M.A. at the University of Maryland. She has taught at the University of Iowa, Frostburg State University, and Montgomery College.
Grimes is best known for her series of novels featuring Richard Jury, an inspector with Scotland Yard, and his friend Melrose Plant, a British aristocrat who has given up his titles. Each of the Jury mysteries is named after a pub. Her page-turning, character-driven tales fall into the mystery subdivision of "cozies." In 1983, Grimes received the Nero Wolfe Award for best mystery of the year for The Anodyne Necklace.
The background to Hotel Paradise is drawn on the experiences she enjoyed spending summers at her mother's hotel in Mountain Lake Park, Maryland. One of the characters, Mr Britain, is drawn on Britten Leo Martin, Sr, who then ran Marti's Store which he owned with his father and brother. Martin's Store is accessible by a short walkway from Mountain Lake, the site of the former Hotel, which was torn down in 1967.
She splits her time between homes in Washington, D.C., and Santa Fe, New Mexico.
She was born May 2 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to D.W., a city solicitor, and to June, who owned the Mountain Lake Hotel in Western Maryland where Martha and her brother spent much of their childhood. Grimes earned her B.A. and M.A. at the University of Maryland. She has taught at the University of Iowa, Frostburg State University, and Montgomery College.
Grimes is best known for her series of novels featuring Richard Jury, an inspector with Scotland Yard, and his friend Melrose Plant, a British aristocrat who has given up his titles. Each of the Jury mysteries is named after a pub. Her page-turning, character-driven tales fall into the mystery subdivision of "cozies." In 1983, Grimes received the Nero Wolfe Award for best mystery of the year for The Anodyne Necklace.
The background to Hotel Paradise is drawn on the experiences she enjoyed spending summers at her mother's hotel in Mountain Lake Park, Maryland. One of the characters, Mr Britain, is drawn on Britten Leo Martin, Sr, who then ran Marti's Store which he owned with his father and brother. Martin's Store is accessible by a short walkway from Mountain Lake, the site of the former Hotel, which was torn down in 1967.
She splits her time between homes in Washington, D.C., and Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 221 reviews
June 26, 2022
Volume 4 in the Emma Graham series. My favorite passage in this series occurs in this volume:
“Miss Babbit looked a little perplexed, then told me to follow her, and we walked into the fiction shelves. She knew, I think, every book in the library, for it took her exactly one minute back there to find the book she wanted. I considered becoming a librarian. You really knew what you were doing if you were one.”
And I”m not saying that’s my favorite because I’m a librarian.
OK, I am saying it because I’m a librarian.
Maybe I should shut up.
“Miss Babbit looked a little perplexed, then told me to follow her, and we walked into the fiction shelves. She knew, I think, every book in the library, for it took her exactly one minute back there to find the book she wanted. I considered becoming a librarian. You really knew what you were doing if you were one.”
And I”m not saying that’s my favorite because I’m a librarian.
OK, I am saying it because I’m a librarian.
Maybe I should shut up.
July 2, 2024
This book is just the second half of Belle Ruin. The two should be combined. It's actually the fourth of the Emma Graham stories, but Hotel Paradise and Cold Flat Junction stand on their own. The last two only stand together.
By some quirk, my spouse picked up Hotel Paradise some 15 or so years ago for vacation reading (she probably thought it was another Richard Jury mystery). I loved it. It is one of my favorite books ever. The heroine, Emma Graham is a spunky, creative 12-year old. I have this awesome niece who was about 12 when I read Hotel Paradise, so in part I expect my liking of the book had to do with my liking my awesome niece. Still it was a great story. When we discovered Cold Flat Junction at a church fair a few years ago, I was delighted to become reacquainted with Emma. The story was almost as compelling as Hotel Paradise.
These last two books don't match up. Martha Grimes has let things which were once charming or funny become overworked and annoying. Spiking the salad of a crabby old lady once or twice is fun, but when Emma does it with regularity, it becomes sociopathically cruel. Not good.
One of the charms of the first two books, and The End of the Pier, which is set in the same place and has some of the same characters, albeit not Emma, is that you can't be sure of the time or place. The locale is around a faded resort hotel which has seen better times. Perhaps its in the Adirondacks or Poconos, that's where these kinds of resorts used to flourish. It turns out, in this book that they're in Western Maryland, Garret County, no doubt. Wow, I never knew any one in Maryland who ever bothered going to Garret County for vacation (or any other reason). They went to Ocean City or Pennsylvania, or some such. Even the Boy Scouts didn't go to Garret County. I would think it even less likely to have New Yorkers vacation in Garret County. But, it's possible, I suppose, so that part only bothered me a tiny bit.
But we get a much better handle on the time period in this book, which takes away some of the book's enigmatic charm. Things pretty much have to be in the 1960s at a minimum because there are 50 states and because young, star struck girls from 20 years before the period in the book were enamored by Veronica Lake. Well, Veronica was pretty much done by the mid 1940s and definitely not a factor in anyone's reckoning by 1950. So, here we are in the 1960s, but the 12-year old in the story knows Ink Spots songs by heart, and her older brother's musical friend is all over tin-pan alley, Paper Moon, and so forth. No way 1960s teenagers weren't into Elvis, Frankie Avalon, Annette, The Drifters, et al (but the 90-something year old great aunt liked Patience and Prudence? WTF?). Anyway, when the time wasn't clear, the books were rather more fun. When the time becomes clarified, one realizes that all the cultural references are wrong. WTF? I was much happier when I couldn't decide if the time were the 1940s or 1950s, but when it became clear it had to be the 1960s, it just didn't gibe.
So, I think what I'm trying to say, is the first couple of books in this series are rather awesome, but Martha Grimes has pretty much shot her wad by the time she got to these last two. Even so, Fadeaway Girl and Belle Ruin are still fun reads, albeit no longer awesome (unlike my niece who has long since left 12 behind, but who is, never-the-less, still awesome).
By some quirk, my spouse picked up Hotel Paradise some 15 or so years ago for vacation reading (she probably thought it was another Richard Jury mystery). I loved it. It is one of my favorite books ever. The heroine, Emma Graham is a spunky, creative 12-year old. I have this awesome niece who was about 12 when I read Hotel Paradise, so in part I expect my liking of the book had to do with my liking my awesome niece. Still it was a great story. When we discovered Cold Flat Junction at a church fair a few years ago, I was delighted to become reacquainted with Emma. The story was almost as compelling as Hotel Paradise.
These last two books don't match up. Martha Grimes has let things which were once charming or funny become overworked and annoying. Spiking the salad of a crabby old lady once or twice is fun, but when Emma does it with regularity, it becomes sociopathically cruel. Not good.
One of the charms of the first two books, and The End of the Pier, which is set in the same place and has some of the same characters, albeit not Emma, is that you can't be sure of the time or place. The locale is around a faded resort hotel which has seen better times. Perhaps its in the Adirondacks or Poconos, that's where these kinds of resorts used to flourish. It turns out, in this book that they're in Western Maryland, Garret County, no doubt. Wow, I never knew any one in Maryland who ever bothered going to Garret County for vacation (or any other reason). They went to Ocean City or Pennsylvania, or some such. Even the Boy Scouts didn't go to Garret County. I would think it even less likely to have New Yorkers vacation in Garret County. But, it's possible, I suppose, so that part only bothered me a tiny bit.
But we get a much better handle on the time period in this book, which takes away some of the book's enigmatic charm. Things pretty much have to be in the 1960s at a minimum because there are 50 states and because young, star struck girls from 20 years before the period in the book were enamored by Veronica Lake. Well, Veronica was pretty much done by the mid 1940s and definitely not a factor in anyone's reckoning by 1950. So, here we are in the 1960s, but the 12-year old in the story knows Ink Spots songs by heart, and her older brother's musical friend is all over tin-pan alley, Paper Moon, and so forth. No way 1960s teenagers weren't into Elvis, Frankie Avalon, Annette, The Drifters, et al (but the 90-something year old great aunt liked Patience and Prudence? WTF?). Anyway, when the time wasn't clear, the books were rather more fun. When the time becomes clarified, one realizes that all the cultural references are wrong. WTF? I was much happier when I couldn't decide if the time were the 1940s or 1950s, but when it became clear it had to be the 1960s, it just didn't gibe.
So, I think what I'm trying to say, is the first couple of books in this series are rather awesome, but Martha Grimes has pretty much shot her wad by the time she got to these last two. Even so, Fadeaway Girl and Belle Ruin are still fun reads, albeit no longer awesome (unlike my niece who has long since left 12 behind, but who is, never-the-less, still awesome).
July 4, 2011
Twelve-year-old Emma Graham is the precocious protagonist/narrator of Fadeaway Girl, precocious being the operative word. Emma's pretty busy for a pre-adolescent, waiting tables at the restaurant where her mother cooks, concocting exotic alcoholic cocktails for her aging aunt, and, in her spare time, solving decades-old cold cases of kidnapping. The bones of this story, and this series, are good. The problem lies within Emma as main character. The town in which she resides is small, a place where everyone knows everyone, and everyone seems to accept that Emma's wise beyond her years. She writes serious pieces for the local newspaper. Her vocabulary is prodigious, her deductions and insights penetrating and astute, and her powers of observation the best in town. Therein lies the problem - all this genius is admirable in a character like Sherlock Holmes or Miss Marple. In a child, after the first moments of wonder, it becomes an distracting annoyance. There are moments of humor and moments of pathos, but it's hard to sustain interest in an investigation lead by a moppet, unless you're a moppet yourself.
September 15, 2011
Do not read this book unless you have read the other books in the series. There are many references to previous plotlines which leaves you guessing for most of the book. I found the narrator, Emma, to be poorly written - obviously an adult mind, but with random out of character "little kid" characteristics thrown in. You could start this book in the last 50 pages and you really wouldn't have missed anything. It took me over a month to finish this book, and I only finished it because I'm not the kind of person to give up on a book, no matter how bad it is.
March 7, 2011
Martha Grimes defines quirky with every character in this outstanding novel: from the one on the cover, to the others we encounter in this really cold case. Although this is a sequel to Belle Ruin, it doesn't matter if you did not read the previous book.
12 year old Emma Graham, a very creative bartender, waitress and general flunky at Her mothers Hotel Paradise; a crumbling old place inhabited permanently by her great aunt, Aurora Paradise taking up the entire fourth floor.
Emma determines to solve the mystery of a missing baby from 20 years ago and in the course of doing so, solves a couple of related murders along the way. She flits from one corner of the back of beyond to the other on the train that links most of these hamlets or Alex's Taxi, although we never actually meet Alex.
In between there are the equally mysterious secret doings in the Big Garage as her older brother and a cast of misfits prepare a sequel to their original production Medea, the Musical. Strangers appear from nowhere and may or may not have something to do with the missing baby.
12 year old Emma Graham, a very creative bartender, waitress and general flunky at Her mothers Hotel Paradise; a crumbling old place inhabited permanently by her great aunt, Aurora Paradise taking up the entire fourth floor.
Emma determines to solve the mystery of a missing baby from 20 years ago and in the course of doing so, solves a couple of related murders along the way. She flits from one corner of the back of beyond to the other on the train that links most of these hamlets or Alex's Taxi, although we never actually meet Alex.
In between there are the equally mysterious secret doings in the Big Garage as her older brother and a cast of misfits prepare a sequel to their original production Medea, the Musical. Strangers appear from nowhere and may or may not have something to do with the missing baby.
September 5, 2013
This is the 4th Martha Grimes novel with Emma Graham in it. It's really the second part of the story begun in Belle Ruin.
12 year old Emma Graham is still up to her sleuthing ways. In some ways she is very precocious, in other ways awfully naive. She is also a terrible liar and plays very mean-spirited tricks on various people. For these reasons I am not as fond of her as some readers profess to be.
The setting is a small town in the Western end of Maryland, just across from West Virginia. The whole thing takes place inside Emma's head and she doesn't give any dates. Because the great Jo Stafford is singing "You Belong to Me" on the jukebox the earliest it could be is 1952.
The main thing Emma is interested in solving was what was behind a kidnapping which may or may not have happened 20 years ago. The result of that incident is somebody now meeting an untimely death.
I much prefer the 22 Martha Grimes novels about Richard Jury of Scotland Yard.
12 year old Emma Graham is still up to her sleuthing ways. In some ways she is very precocious, in other ways awfully naive. She is also a terrible liar and plays very mean-spirited tricks on various people. For these reasons I am not as fond of her as some readers profess to be.
The setting is a small town in the Western end of Maryland, just across from West Virginia. The whole thing takes place inside Emma's head and she doesn't give any dates. Because the great Jo Stafford is singing "You Belong to Me" on the jukebox the earliest it could be is 1952.
The main thing Emma is interested in solving was what was behind a kidnapping which may or may not have happened 20 years ago. The result of that incident is somebody now meeting an untimely death.
I much prefer the 22 Martha Grimes novels about Richard Jury of Scotland Yard.
January 3, 2012
they're rather difficult books, because while there are certainly mysterious and violent and tragic elements filling 12 yr old Emma Graham's life, these stories are not really mysteries. They are more a character study--the world sometime on the early 60's (late 50s?) of a small, backwater resort town as seen through the eyes of a bright, horribly marginalized girl.
That said, I find them hypnotic, certainly frustrating, as each book ends without revelation or explanation fro a series of interwoven tragedies and appearances. But part of the intrigue is that this is exactly how Emma's world would be-- so much is kept back from her, so many experiences and possible motives are inaccessible to her. She doesn't "know" things, only intuits them and that vaguely, out of the corner of her eye. Definitely textured and rich and evocative . I can't wait for the next installment
That said, I find them hypnotic, certainly frustrating, as each book ends without revelation or explanation fro a series of interwoven tragedies and appearances. But part of the intrigue is that this is exactly how Emma's world would be-- so much is kept back from her, so many experiences and possible motives are inaccessible to her. She doesn't "know" things, only intuits them and that vaguely, out of the corner of her eye. Definitely textured and rich and evocative . I can't wait for the next installment
January 3, 2022
Emma Graham lives in what she calls "Tragedy Town." Over the years there have been three connected murders--a shooting, a stabbing, and a drowning--and an alleged kidnapping. And Emma herself was nearly drowned as well. As a result of that incident, she's been made a cub reporter on the local newspaper and she's supposed to be writing up her version of the events but she can't get her mind off the old murders and the kidnapping. She firmly believes that all the troubles in Spirit Lake, La Porte, and Lake Noir are connected and that the tragedy isn't over yet. When a stranger by the name of "Rafe" Diggs shows up and more tragic events occur, she's proved right. But just how does everything tie together?
You'd think I would have learned my lesson about Martha Grimes and her books set in the United States instead of England. When I first started reading Grimes (back in the 80s), I worked my way through her Richard Jury series. Then, all unsuspecting, I picked up The End of the Pier when it came out. Kirkus Reviews begins their review of that one with "Something completely different from the author of the popular, ever-so-British Inspector Jury mysteries...." They weren't kidding. It was completely different and completely not my cup of tea. And neither is this one--set in the same area and featuring some of the same families. Martha Grimes may be American, but I'd much rather read her British mysteries any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
The twelve year old protagonist does absolutely nothing for me. She has the most wild flights of fancy intertwined with her "deductions" and we're expected to believe that she solves these old murders and the mysteries behind the kidnapping when the police were unable to do so. Sure, there's a long history of girl detectives (Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, Beverly Gray...etc) doing what the police couldn't, but Emma Graham isn't even believable from a fictional standpoint. I couldn't suspend my belief that much...
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
You'd think I would have learned my lesson about Martha Grimes and her books set in the United States instead of England. When I first started reading Grimes (back in the 80s), I worked my way through her Richard Jury series. Then, all unsuspecting, I picked up The End of the Pier when it came out. Kirkus Reviews begins their review of that one with "Something completely different from the author of the popular, ever-so-British Inspector Jury mysteries...." They weren't kidding. It was completely different and completely not my cup of tea. And neither is this one--set in the same area and featuring some of the same families. Martha Grimes may be American, but I'd much rather read her British mysteries any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
The twelve year old protagonist does absolutely nothing for me. She has the most wild flights of fancy intertwined with her "deductions" and we're expected to believe that she solves these old murders and the mysteries behind the kidnapping when the police were unable to do so. Sure, there's a long history of girl detectives (Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, Beverly Gray...etc) doing what the police couldn't, but Emma Graham isn't even believable from a fictional standpoint. I couldn't suspend my belief that much...
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
April 23, 2012
Gave it 5 stars because I think I've been a bit mean with the stars lately - and I just loved this book. It seems to catch such a deep feeling for life though a focus on quite surface things. I would have loved to spin the book out for weeks, but it was just not possible to stop reading for more than a few hours at a time. This is the fourth book set in Paradise Hotel and only a week covered in each book - should have felt hectic but instead sets a wonderful leisurely pace.
September 23, 2022
Couldn't finish. Was boring, meandering and made no sense.
September 24, 2016
I hardly know what to make of this fourth book in this series. I thought this was to be the last but now I wonder if there will be another. There are parts in this one and in the others when I laugh out loud and think "I just love this book" but then at other parts I am disappointed. I was ready to bring this to a close but now I want more or at least to have a true resolution to the mystery. I am becoming tired of some of the repetition. Maybe, I would like it to move forward to another time, when Emma is a little older, but she and the small town setting is what I loved about this story to begin with. I am still giving it 4 stars but I am certainly ambivalent at this point.
December 18, 2015
Where'd the enchanting Emma be without Huck Finn? That wonderful voice, the observation of life, the refusal to play by its rules, the rich roster of vividly engaging characters surrounding her, their adult behaviour to be seen, sorted and ultimately evaluated. And through all that, growing up a little at a time -- figuratively as well as literally coming to solve mysteries. Emma is ultimately a totally different character than Huck, but she is definitely descended from him.
Descent turns out to be a major part of the mystery (not a spoiler). Not having read the previous books in the series, I found that wasn't a problem as some here said it is. While I'd like to look back at the preceding episodes for the pleasure of reading them, I really don't think people should be discouraged from reading this one on its own. It became another twist or level to the puzzle for me - even driving me to scribble up a brief family tree on a paper scrap. Which helped.
This is such a beautiful creation of an idealized past, a classic mid-20th Century American South full of innocence and community, with no racial issues -- in fact, no races other than white, no sexual politics, no anti-Semitism. For me, Ms Grimes has successfully rendered an artful fairy tale of unexpectedly loosened imagination, infused with mood and atmosphere, and a genre-satisfying mystery sticking to it like a spider's web.
A thoroughly enjoyable experience. A surprising world away from the Jury novels, which I've followed for years. I was captivated.
Descent turns out to be a major part of the mystery (not a spoiler). Not having read the previous books in the series, I found that wasn't a problem as some here said it is. While I'd like to look back at the preceding episodes for the pleasure of reading them, I really don't think people should be discouraged from reading this one on its own. It became another twist or level to the puzzle for me - even driving me to scribble up a brief family tree on a paper scrap. Which helped.
This is such a beautiful creation of an idealized past, a classic mid-20th Century American South full of innocence and community, with no racial issues -- in fact, no races other than white, no sexual politics, no anti-Semitism. For me, Ms Grimes has successfully rendered an artful fairy tale of unexpectedly loosened imagination, infused with mood and atmosphere, and a genre-satisfying mystery sticking to it like a spider's web.
A thoroughly enjoyable experience. A surprising world away from the Jury novels, which I've followed for years. I was captivated.
December 21, 2011
I've enjoyed this series, but I think it's time the author brought it to a close. It's getting repetitive, since the author has to re-explain so much of the plot and the character's characteristics. Sometimes I feel as if I've read the same line several times in previous chapters. And the mystery is getting more and more convoluted (so the next book will have to repeat even more from the first 4 books). [Or is the author being clever with all the repetition, since part of the whole atmosphere and plot of this book is the repetition of events through the generations plus in the people's day-to-day lives??]
The main character Emma is charming and I've enjoyed getting to know her, but I'm getting critical of how falsely precocious she is: she never sits down to read, so how could she be familiar with all those quotations from famous authors (eg, Tolstoy)? And why would ALL Emma's (actually, the author's) favorite people -- a mechanic, a diner waitress, and a sheriff-- be so literate and yet stay in this dismal small town among small-minded people?
I think an interesting wrap-up would be to solve the previous crimes in the first chapters of the next book and then focus on the mysteries surrounding Emma's own family and the hotel they run.
The main character Emma is charming and I've enjoyed getting to know her, but I'm getting critical of how falsely precocious she is: she never sits down to read, so how could she be familiar with all those quotations from famous authors (eg, Tolstoy)? And why would ALL Emma's (actually, the author's) favorite people -- a mechanic, a diner waitress, and a sheriff-- be so literate and yet stay in this dismal small town among small-minded people?
I think an interesting wrap-up would be to solve the previous crimes in the first chapters of the next book and then focus on the mysteries surrounding Emma's own family and the hotel they run.
February 23, 2021
Very strange book. Not at all what I thought would be in a Martha Grimes book. I didn't research it before reading, thinking it would be an English mystery. Was I surprised!!!
March 4, 2013
Fadeaway Girl by Martha Grimes is the 4th book of the Emma Graham mystery series, set in a small town in Maryland around the mid-20th-century. Emma is 12 years old. She lives in the Hotel Paradise, a rundown resort owned and operated by her mother. Emma’s mother cooks for the hotel guests, and Emma fixes salads and waits on tables. Emma frequently sabotages the food she serves to Bertha, a guest she hates. Emma’s great aunt Aurora Paradise never leaves her rooms at the top of the hotel. Emma creatively mixes cocktails for Aurora, who doesn’t mind what she drinks as long as it is primarily alcohol and she gets lots of refills. Emma’s brothers spend their time in the “Big Garage” putting on musicals. Emma’s mother is evidently quite busy running the hotel, and Emma has complete freedom most of her days and nights. She travels into town by taxi, to see movies or spend time with her adult friends at the diner (the waitress and the sheriff). Emma also visits the newspaper editor, for whom she is writing up her story of the attempt on her life as she solved a mystery in the previous book, Belle Ruin.
In Fadeaway Girl, Emma is obsessed with the 20-year-old unsolved kidnapping of the Slade baby from the Belle Ruin hotel. She questions town residents tirelessly (read: tiresomely) on their memories of the event – at every encounter, she brings up the kidnapping. Emma consults newspaper archives and researches at the library, but mostly pesters everyone continually with her questions. Residents remember the details differently and their stories change, as well. It seems the kidnapping was not properly investigated at the time, and Emma is eventually able to ferret out the truth.
There are many oddball characters in Emma’s circle of friends and acquaintances. Rather than being charmingly quirky, they are mostly stupidly dysfunctional. Emma is given wide latitude in her behavior by the adults she continually visits and interrogates, and she is always offered sweets, which is consistent with her age. However Emma is also portrayed as possessing introspection and perception well beyond her age, well beyond the capabilities of the adults in her world, for that matter. She was the only one curious enough to solve an unsolved police case, for instance.
I am a big fan of Martha Grimes, consider her frequently tongue-in-cheek writing style delightful, and plan to continue to read all her books. But I enjoyed the previous books in the Emma Graham series much more than Fadeaway Girl. It seems like Emma’s personality has become more obnoxious and smart-alecky, closer to that of Flavia de Luce in The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (which I loathed). I prefer the Richard Jury series, which also has quirky characters, but at least the reader is not expected to believe the protagonist solving mysteries is only 12.
My favorite part of Fadeaway Girl is Emma’s fascination with Coles Phillips’ “Fadeaway Girls” commercial artwork. I agree with Emma that the images are fabulous. Try a Google search of “Coles Phillips Fadeaway Girls” for a visual treat.
http://www.google.com/search?q=coles+...
In Fadeaway Girl, Emma is obsessed with the 20-year-old unsolved kidnapping of the Slade baby from the Belle Ruin hotel. She questions town residents tirelessly (read: tiresomely) on their memories of the event – at every encounter, she brings up the kidnapping. Emma consults newspaper archives and researches at the library, but mostly pesters everyone continually with her questions. Residents remember the details differently and their stories change, as well. It seems the kidnapping was not properly investigated at the time, and Emma is eventually able to ferret out the truth.
There are many oddball characters in Emma’s circle of friends and acquaintances. Rather than being charmingly quirky, they are mostly stupidly dysfunctional. Emma is given wide latitude in her behavior by the adults she continually visits and interrogates, and she is always offered sweets, which is consistent with her age. However Emma is also portrayed as possessing introspection and perception well beyond her age, well beyond the capabilities of the adults in her world, for that matter. She was the only one curious enough to solve an unsolved police case, for instance.
I am a big fan of Martha Grimes, consider her frequently tongue-in-cheek writing style delightful, and plan to continue to read all her books. But I enjoyed the previous books in the Emma Graham series much more than Fadeaway Girl. It seems like Emma’s personality has become more obnoxious and smart-alecky, closer to that of Flavia de Luce in The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (which I loathed). I prefer the Richard Jury series, which also has quirky characters, but at least the reader is not expected to believe the protagonist solving mysteries is only 12.
My favorite part of Fadeaway Girl is Emma’s fascination with Coles Phillips’ “Fadeaway Girls” commercial artwork. I agree with Emma that the images are fabulous. Try a Google search of “Coles Phillips Fadeaway Girls” for a visual treat.
http://www.google.com/search?q=coles+...
January 28, 2024
Being the glutton for punishment that I am, and waiting for a hold at the library to become available, I opened up a Martha Grimes book. But, I'm not quite as dumb as I look; I refrained from even looking to see if there is a new Richard Jury book. (No more talking dogs/dolls for me, thank you.)
I remember really liking the first book in the Emma Graham series, "Hotel Paradise". Alas, I did not remember thinking that numbers 2 and 3 in the series were pretty much Bflat.
Almost immediately, there were good reasons to close the book.
This is the USA... Who says "barmy" OR "jawin'" or "stiff-armed"?
Did I follow up? Alas no. I slogged on through what should have been a very fast read. Having pretty much forgotten everything about the previous 3 Emma Graham books, I kept trying to guess what decade the sprawling tale of this precocious twelve-year old heroine (and so so many other characters constantly being introduced) was supposed to be taking place.
1950s?? 1960s?? Surely not as late as the 1970s....
She's 12!! How does she know about "Night Must Fall" (from 1937!!), its plot, and who was in it? And how has she even heard of David O. Selznick? Or Humphrey Bogart? Or James Cagney? Reminder: she's 12!!
By chapter 16, nothing had happened yet. Except some descriptions of this horrible girl making terrifying-sounding cocktails for her Great Aunt Aurora, one of the inmates of her mother's hotel: Rumba, Pink Elephant, Cold Comfort, etc. etc.
Alas, there was still not really any clue about when this story was taking place, except by notes about a kidnapping being like the Lindbergh case (which was in 1932):
Why yes. It WAS as if nothing had happened. pfft In fact, from reading, I knew nothing had happened....
Except, finally, there was a decent clue that this story must be at least 1950s: from the fact that the phonograph, "an old Victrola with a crank handle, left forgotten in one of the storage rooms on the second floor for six or seven years" had "I'll be Seeing You" (1938) on it, and the "last one we had played a few nights ago, when the Sheriff and Maud and Dwayne had been out here. That was Moonlight Serenade." [published 1938]"
Not quite beginning to enjoy hating the story, I dredged on.
Who??
Excellent! {cough} Yet another character.
Is that all? The number of paths seemed countless. And by chapter 65, when the book was finally, finally, finally over, the number of paths and characters seemed infinite.
+++++++++++
If half stars were allowed, the rating would be 1.5. It's rounded up because a.) I actually finished reading the book, and b.) learned about Clarence Coles Phillips' (1880-1927) Fadeaway Girls.
The girl peeking through keyhole on black background: "In A Position To Know" was used as the Cover Design for Life Magazine, April 7, 1921 (the original is housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art)
The internet archive library has the book "A gallery of girls" (1911) by Coles Phillips that includes a pretty girl with light blue background: "Long Distance Lends Enchantment", a pretty girl in a dotted dress surrounded by chickens: "Corn Exchange", a girl with a red background and a postbox: "Between You and Me and the Post", a girl and dog on an amber background: "Birches"
I remember really liking the first book in the Emma Graham series, "Hotel Paradise". Alas, I did not remember thinking that numbers 2 and 3 in the series were pretty much Bflat.
Almost immediately, there were good reasons to close the book.
"I'm saying Isabel Barnett is barmy. You can't depend on anything she says or does. She's lived all by herself for so long she probably talks to the walls. I know she's got a parrot and they probably sit up half the night jawin'." She stiff-armed her glass at me. [chapter 1]
This is the USA... Who says "barmy" OR "jawin'" or "stiff-armed"?
Did I follow up? Alas no. I slogged on through what should have been a very fast read. Having pretty much forgotten everything about the previous 3 Emma Graham books, I kept trying to guess what decade the sprawling tale of this precocious twelve-year old heroine (and so so many other characters constantly being introduced) was supposed to be taking place.
1950s?? 1960s?? Surely not as late as the 1970s....
There was a movie called Night Must Fall. Robert Montgomery played a bellhop in a big hotel, who carried a hatbox around. He charmed a rich old lady in a wheelchair so much that she had him move into her little house. Her companion, played by Rosalind Russell, was really suspicious of him, and he knew it. [Chapter 13]
~ ~ ~
If David O. Selznick had given him the nod, he would have nodded back and checked his schedule. [Chapter 14]
~ ~ ~
I could have been in the Florida Keys with Humphrey Bogart in a hurricane [Chapter 34]
~ ~ ~
I had told my mother I wanted to see the movie at the Orion. What movie? she asked, trying to keep a grip on my movie education
"Public Enemy," I said, "with James Cagney."
"That's an old movie, isn't it? It's much too violent." [chapter 36]
She's 12!! How does she know about "Night Must Fall" (from 1937!!), its plot, and who was in it? And how has she even heard of David O. Selznick? Or Humphrey Bogart? Or James Cagney? Reminder: she's 12!!
By chapter 16, nothing had happened yet. Except some descriptions of this horrible girl making terrifying-sounding cocktails for her Great Aunt Aurora, one of the inmates of her mother's hotel: Rumba, Pink Elephant, Cold Comfort, etc. etc.
Alas, there was still not really any clue about when this story was taking place, except by notes about a kidnapping being like the Lindbergh case (which was in 1932):
Here was a kidnapping very like the Lindbergh case, and then nothing further had been reported. It was as if nothing had happened at all, and I was thinking that maybe nothing had [Chapter 16]
Why yes. It WAS as if nothing had happened. pfft In fact, from reading, I knew nothing had happened....
Except, finally, there was a decent clue that this story must be at least 1950s: from the fact that the phonograph, "an old Victrola with a crank handle, left forgotten in one of the storage rooms on the second floor for six or seven years" had "I'll be Seeing You" (1938) on it, and the "last one we had played a few nights ago, when the Sheriff and Maud and Dwayne had been out here. That was Moonlight Serenade." [published 1938]"
Not quite beginning to enjoy hating the story, I dredged on.
I wanted to slap my hands over my ears. He was going to tell us what had happened that night; he was going to tell the end of it, the dazzling truth, the end of the story.
But he didn't.
It was a dazzling something else.
"Morris Slade's back in town." [Chapter 25]
Who??
Excellent! {cough} Yet another character.
The story had already gone down four different paths [Chapter 27]
Is that all? The number of paths seemed countless. And by chapter 65, when the book was finally, finally, finally over, the number of paths and characters seemed infinite.
+++++++++++
If half stars were allowed, the rating would be 1.5. It's rounded up because a.) I actually finished reading the book, and b.) learned about Clarence Coles Phillips' (1880-1927) Fadeaway Girls.
I got up from the table and and the newspapers and went to teh table by the door that held the past copies of magazines like Life and the Saturday Evening Post. I had seen the cover before and wanted to see it again. It was right on top where I'd left it. The cover showed a woman in red against a red background, a black wrought-iron fence in the foreground, and a black mailbox. She was mailing a letter, or probably a Christmas card, for it was clearly a Christmas issue. Light snow was falling, the flakes just a few white dots, coming down here and there.[...], the red-coated girl in front of a wrought-iron fence, slipping a Christmas card into a mailbox [...] the amber-haired girl, in the amber woods, walking with an amber and white collie. [Chapter 64]
Mr. Gumbrel once told me the artist had done a lot of these illustrations for magazines. His name was Coles Phillips and he was famous for them. I went through the stack but didn't find another of them. Red against red, the outline of her coat was invisible. She blended into the background.
It was a trick of the eye, I guess. [...] [T]here was something restful about seeing it as the artist intended, letting the red coat fade into its background.
He called them Fadeaway Girls. [Chapter 4]
~ ~ ~
[S]he was just a girl, a visitor, a person who came and went, who appeared and disappeared, a pretty girl in a milky blue dress; or in red velvet, mailing a letter; or in black cotton, kneeling at a keyhole. A girl who melted into the canvas, a Fadeaway Girl.
[Chapter 27]
~ ~ ~
I lined up all the magazine covers I could find that pictured the Fadeaway Girls: Good Housekeeping, Life, the Saturday Evening Post. I studied each one [...]: the maid in a black uniform kneeling and looking through a keyhole
The girl peeking through keyhole on black background: "In A Position To Know" was used as the Cover Design for Life Magazine, April 7, 1921 (the original is housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art)
The internet archive library has the book "A gallery of girls" (1911) by Coles Phillips that includes a pretty girl with light blue background: "Long Distance Lends Enchantment", a pretty girl in a dotted dress surrounded by chickens: "Corn Exchange", a girl with a red background and a postbox: "Between You and Me and the Post", a girl and dog on an amber background: "Birches"
December 15, 2011
Yesterday, I listened to an interview with the author, where she stated that she's frustrated that this series is marketed as "mystery" when it's really about Emma, and not the crimes she investigates. I agree, as the crime details are so convoluted and hard-to-follow that I really don't care all that much about the Devereau-Queen-Souder families (five years between books makes that especially problematic); I've stuck with the stories to learn more about the protagonist. However, at the end of this one, I feel as though I know Emma's situation less well. Four books later, the following remains outstanding:
How exactly is Emma related to the Paradises (specifically Aurora)? Aside from that her mother is a widow, and from West Virginia not Maryland, so the property came down through her late father's family by inference. Moreover, Aurora takes a swipe at "those Grahams" at one point as being an inferior branch of the Paradise tree.
What's the deal with Lola Davidow, and Re-Jean? Why would Lola invest her money in the place. Why did Lola, Re-Jean, Jen and Will go to Florida on vacation at the beginning of the series, leaving 12 year old Emma home alone as a Cinderella figure? There's also been a mention that Lola took Emma to the pricey Silver Pear restaurant for lunch "to be nice" once. I'm going to expose the 800 lb. gorilla I've not seen expressed anywhere in a review: Lola and Jen are a couple. Moreover, Will and Mill are portrayed as stereotypically gay - spending their free time designing killer musicals? There's also a same sex couple that runs the Silver Pear itself as well. Life in Eisenhower America wasn't as some folks spo fondly recall it seems ...
Though the details of the crimes Emma's been solving are pretty much resolved at the end of the book, Grimes really needs to go on until Emma herself is resolved. I feel she owes us that.
How exactly is Emma related to the Paradises (specifically Aurora)? Aside from that her mother is a widow, and from West Virginia not Maryland, so the property came down through her late father's family by inference. Moreover, Aurora takes a swipe at "those Grahams" at one point as being an inferior branch of the Paradise tree.
What's the deal with Lola Davidow, and Re-Jean? Why would Lola invest her money in the place. Why did Lola, Re-Jean, Jen and Will go to Florida on vacation at the beginning of the series, leaving 12 year old Emma home alone as a Cinderella figure? There's also been a mention that Lola took Emma to the pricey Silver Pear restaurant for lunch "to be nice" once. I'm going to expose the 800 lb. gorilla I've not seen expressed anywhere in a review: Lola and Jen are a couple. Moreover, Will and Mill are portrayed as stereotypically gay - spending their free time designing killer musicals? There's also a same sex couple that runs the Silver Pear itself as well. Life in Eisenhower America wasn't as some folks spo fondly recall it seems ...
Though the details of the crimes Emma's been solving are pretty much resolved at the end of the book, Grimes really needs to go on until Emma herself is resolved. I feel she owes us that.
July 26, 2012
I really enjoyed Fadeaway Girl, a non-Richard Jury novel by Martha Grimes. I gather it's part of another series, but I may just rest with this one outing. In it, Grimes focuses on a single point of view, that of stubborn, sassy, smart, precocious Emma Graham. Emma could be the twin of Flavia del Luce, of the Alan Bradley mysteries: she's cranky, nosy, and very entertaining. Grimes has been experimenting with voice in the Jury novels (I mentioned that part of The Black Cat featured narration by a dog and a cat who can communicate telepathically. . . a bit jarring in a police procedural), but she remains in Emma's head for this novel. What Grimes continues to do--which lost her the final star in my opinion--is obscure the details of the solution, the murder, even the plot itself. Parts of this novel depend completely on the reader having read an earlier novel (Belle Ruin), which I have not read, and instead of providing a clear preface, a conversation that restates the salient details, or anything like that, Grimes scatters bits and pieces, allusions, etc, into the entirety of Fadeaway Girl. If I hadn't enjoyed Emma so much, I'd've quit about 2/3 through--because she does NOT explain the situation clearly at all.
So. It was an interesting read, with a terrific main character, but Fadeaway Girl stands as another example of Martha Grimes's refusal to write a straightforward story, so frustration is part of the package!
So. It was an interesting read, with a terrific main character, but Fadeaway Girl stands as another example of Martha Grimes's refusal to write a straightforward story, so frustration is part of the package!
June 26, 2011
Why do I read Martha Grimes' mysteries? Sometimes it feels as though all the characters do is sit in restaurants and talk and talk and talk. In this book, the third in a series that starts with Cold Flat Junction, the main character is a 12-year-old girl, so a diner/doughnut shop instead of a pub is the main hangout. However, very few authors can match Grimes for atmosphere, for wonderful descriptions, unusual but engrossing characters, and a mystery that unfolds slowly, tortuously through the uncovering of small clues and details and sifting through the endless conversations (fascinating conversation, admittedly). The books are truly marvelous. The majority of Grimes' work is set in Britain, but she has at least two series in the US, and this is one of them, set in a small community in Maryland. I have felt that the American books have a little extra passion to them--I just read that Ms. Grimes spent many of her childhood summers in a Maryland hotel owned by her mother, just like Emma.
May 1, 2011
I am a long-time fan of Martha Grimes and her series involving Richard Jury. "Fadeaway Girl" is the fourth book in the series about 12 year old Emma Graham, living in a hotel in Maryland managed by her mother, struggling being stuck between childhood and adolescence, tantalized by the history of unsolved crimes in her small town and crimes that seem to involve her unwittingly. Similar to Flavia de Luce, Emma is bright, courageous and undaunted by adult perceptions that her age is a handicap in solving crime. The novel is filled with the kinds of characters one expects from Grimes, some endearing, others annoying, all memorable. The plot kept veering in unexpected directions, and Grimes’ skillful writing kept me engaged to the very end, teased by the mysteries that remain, the questions unanswered.
June 2, 2019
At this point, I'm just confused. Lots of new players added, half-siblings, step-siblings, an overnight stay at a mental hospital, overuse of deus ex machina, a sheriff in a pretty quiet small town who can't follow up on leads. Sure, many of the crimes are decades old but there is no statute of limitations on murder. Emma continues her investigations into the disappearance of the Slade baby from the Belle Ruin (Rouen) hotel. Was the baby kidnapped? Were the parents in on it? Why does the father return to La Porte after 22 years? Who is the mystery woman who is a dead ringer for Rose Devereau Queen that no one but Emma ever sees? None of this is cleared up and we are four books in while the tale get murkier and murkier.
March 4, 2020
Like other reviewers, I think Grimes has a talent for wry humor and descriptive detail. And, like other reviewers, this book doesn't make much sense without reading the other books beforehand-and I have not. But this is another book club choice.
It seems too silly to me to have a 12 year old girl focused on this long ago baby kidnapping. The book also meanders around a lot in order to introduce the reader to characters that have popped up previous books. That makes the book tedious. A simple summary of the plots and characters for a few pages at the beginning of the book would be far more useful and not require people to read 50+ pages to catch up- if they care to do so- which I did not.
Two stars for the humor.
It seems too silly to me to have a 12 year old girl focused on this long ago baby kidnapping. The book also meanders around a lot in order to introduce the reader to characters that have popped up previous books. That makes the book tedious. A simple summary of the plots and characters for a few pages at the beginning of the book would be far more useful and not require people to read 50+ pages to catch up- if they care to do so- which I did not.
Two stars for the humor.
December 12, 2015
Honestly, I was kind of secretly hoping that this book was going to be the last in the series. I still enjoy the series, but it's starting to get repetitive. Certain actions Emma bribing Donny with donuts, babbling with Delbert in the taxi, making Aurora drinks have been played to death and don't seem to add the same charm to the story as they did when they were still new. Also I NEED CLOSURE!! I am pretty sure that there will be another Emma Graham novel in the future and I kind of hope it's the last one I really just want to find out how this all ends up. The mystery is fascinating and intricate and I really, really, really just want to find out all of this ends!!
March 3, 2011
I love Martha Grimes. She could write the dictionary and I would read it. She would define ordinary words in ways I would never think of.
The Fadeaway Girl was no exception. It was enjoyable from the first page to the last. I read books like I eat M&Ms. I can't consume them fast enough. But this book takes a slow pace from the beginning and I have to read it slowly. It is a pleasure to enjoy a book for longer than usual. Everytime you open it you feel like you inviting your new best friend into your living room again. It is very comforting. Isn't that why we read books?
The Fadeaway Girl was no exception. It was enjoyable from the first page to the last. I read books like I eat M&Ms. I can't consume them fast enough. But this book takes a slow pace from the beginning and I have to read it slowly. It is a pleasure to enjoy a book for longer than usual. Everytime you open it you feel like you inviting your new best friend into your living room again. It is very comforting. Isn't that why we read books?
January 1, 2012
Grimes continues with the story she last addressed in "Belle Ruin," with one of her patented precocious child characters, Emma, trying to solve the mystery of a decades-old kidnapping. I like Grimes' idiosyncratic characters and depiction of small-town (the book takes place in rural southern Maryland) in the early 1960s, but the tone can stray toward overly precious at times. Emma can be alternately amusing and annoying, but overall, this is a nice break from Grimes' Richard Jury mystery novels.
June 25, 2011
The story moved slowly in parts, but the writing is so wonderful you don't mind. A very poignant and lovely read. I enjoyed the series very much. I would be interested in learning what direction Emma's life takes as she grows older. The characters are interesting enough thaqt you want to continue through their lives with them. An excellent book and series.
December 11, 2011
I first met Emma Graham, the protagonist, in Bell Ruin and I fell in love with her.She is a precocious 12 year old who brought back memories of a more innocent time, when kids had more independence and freedom. This book is a mystery, but it is also a story of growing up and learning about the complexities of life.
April 16, 2011
I'm so happy to have this next installment of the Emma Graham series by Martha Grimes in my hot, little hands. I was wondering if Ms. Grimes would write another. I love Emma's voice; hers is true, confident and so clever, I can't believe she is only 12!
May 24, 2011
I love this author and the way she writes. However, this book cannot be read on its own. I think it is all one story written as three books. Start at Cold Flat Junction, then read Belle Ruin and finally this book. Don't expect a straightforward detective story!
March 18, 2020
I was kind of disappointed in the end of this series, as a lot wasn't tied up.
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