Title: Dorothea in the Mirror: A Jill Szekely Mystery
Author: Lois Wells Santalo
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1440190917
Pages: 234, Paperback
Genre: Mystery
Reviewed by: Gary Sorkin, Pacific Book Review
Book Review
Lois Wells Santalo embellishes character development to a fine art in her novel, Dorothea in the Mirror: A Jill Szekely Mystery. With extraordinary skill, Santalo brings the reader into the post-war era of New York, in the predominately Jewish community comprised of refugees from the Nazi regime takeover of Eastern Europe. She introduces and describes her characters with the conversational techniques so ever present in discussing people of that time and place. People then talked about a person by bringing into the picture their family, their profession or skill, and their age pursuant to goals of raising a family. Integrity and honesty of the Jewish immigrants were commonplace characteristics, and for a talented pianist, Zoltan Szekely to be the prime suspect of a murder, things didn’t add up. However the evidence did. The unraveling of the mystery leads a path through events and clandestine motives, a journey including a psychic vision, and brings to life the sensations of a generation of people scared from the carnage overseas.What struck me most impressively is Lois Santalo’s clarity with her characters. Her talent as an author to bring her people to life, using superbly appropriate dialog, embellishing each with a sober background of where the person came from, made me truly believe in the reality of the characters. In fact, at times I thought she was writing about people she knew and the story was real! That’s how well she carried me into her book. Whereas many novels tend to rely on action, location, or even sex to maintain interest, I believe Lois Santalo’s depth of character development is truly her forte. Her writing has more than intelligence; she interlaces wisdom throughout the pages. In the unpretentious lives of people renting rooms and sharing common areas, amidst the modesty of working people always on time and respectful of their roles, people back then barely filled their basic needs however kept their mental development unrestrained. Never yielding determination and adhering to their intrinsic values, her characters formed indelible memories in my mind. This may be the best compliment I can say about a book – something that makes me very pleased to have had the wonderful opportunity to get to know Lois Santalo through her writing of her fictional deceased character Dorothea, and all that followed in the wake of her murder.
For those who love mysteries, this book is a must. The classical assumptions of a police investigation are juxtaposed against the unique and unconventional characters resulting in a true page turner. Clad in a cover photo of a magnifying glass focusing on a corpse with a toe tag, implying a “Sherlock Holmes” type of thought provoking mystery, this artfully done work is a polished gem. Once you then begin to know Lois Wells Santalo, and learn of her cancer survival and love for writing, you thank heaven for her being able to achieve such a masterful accomplishment.
