Ron Butlin, Belonging

Belonging

Ron Butlin

Serpent's Tail, Apr 2007, $14.95

ISBN: 1852429151

At Les Montagnes Blanches ski resort on Mont Blanc, twenty-nine year old caretaker Jack McCall and his thirty-two year old housekeeper girlfriend Anna enjoy the good life of the affluent though they are middle class in earnings and outlook. Their upscale lifestyle occurs because they drift from one vacant apartment to another, making use of the amenities left by their absentee owners. Jack and Anna enjoy expensive food, champagne, dips in the Jacuzzi, and satin sheeted beds. Life is good as Jack and Anna know the rich are not the only ones living affluently especially since no one, not even the nearby villagers of St. Ciers, have been by in a fortnight as a particular nasty blizzard has isolated the resort. Still Anna wants more from her lover though she knows Jack is commitment shy.

However, two people manage to make it through the adverse weather; a couple obviously here to share a tryst. When "M. Ferrari-Penthouse" falls to his death slipping off an icy balcony, his lover Therese is the only witness. She insists a tragic accident happened, but Jack has his doubts as Therese is not even slightly shook up. Unable to take charge of the situation, Jack finds himself instead thinking of sex with Therese even as his ogling upsets Anna, who stubbornly reminds him they have a corpse to deal with.

This is a terrific refreshing character study that focuses more on Jack's inability to take charge of the situation as he prefers to avoid the displeasure that the death of "Ferrari" causes him. Instead of the typical amateur sleuth tale, readers get a reluctant male pushed by two women in differing directions as Anna wants him to engage while Therese wants him to disengage. Ron Butlin provides a fascinating suspense thriller as fans and to a degree Anna will realize we don't know Jack.

Harriet Klausner