Kristine Atkinson and Joyce Atkinson, Journal: The Short Life and Mysterious Death of Amy Zoe Mason

Journal: The Short Life and Mysterious Death of Amy Zoe Mason

Found by Kristine Atkinson and Joyce Atkinson

Simon & Schuster, September 2006, $23.00

ISBN: 0743290380

Kristine and Joy Atkinson bought a desk at a Houston resale shop. They restored the small desk and found a secret compartment containing the nineteenth century journal of thirtyish wife and mother Amy Mason. However, Amy uses the novel Lucille by Owen Meredith to tell about her year of discontent.

Amy's husband, physician Robert relocates from their Houston home to take charge of a cardiology institute in Boston. He leaves behind his wife and their two small children, with plans for them to follow once he finds them a home and sets up standard operating procedures on the job. While he dives into his medical practice and joins high society, he rationalizes that socializing with the Brahmin comes with his vocation. Artistically inclined Amy feels lonely and increasingly despondent. She makes a new friend, her Houston real estate agent Vanessa Garamond, but feeling abandoned, Amy begins to have suspicions about her realtor and her husband. Not long afterward Amy is dead. The Atkinson duo (and readers) ponders murder, suicide, or accident.

JOURNAL is a refreshing creative tale that uses a journal, post cards, newspaper clippings, and other items to tell the story of the last year of the life of Amy Zoe Mason. Readers will appreciate this unique mystery, as the clues are laid out, but not in a linear method with the audience accompanying the sleuth. Those who prefer an open and shut case will need to pass. However, fans who cherish something different will want to read the Atkinson siblings' historical scrapbook.