Murder in the New Age

by D.J.H. Jones

Book Overview

Fans of Murder at the MLA, also by D. J. H. Jones, will welcome this second adventure of Nancy Cook, a Chaucer scholar with a sharp mind and a taste for Bakelite jewelry. When Nancy arrives in Santa... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0826318134
• ISBN13: 9780826318138
• Release Date: August 1997
• Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
• Length: 183 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.8" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

New Age fish in a New Age barrel

I enjoyed D.J.H. Jones' first novel, _Murder at the MLA_, more than I did this one. For one thing there was more of a plot, which is to say the murders actually seemed to have something to do with the story most of the time. Not so in the New Age. Whereas the first novel was an excuse to ridicule the academic and Post Modern foppery who so richly deserve it, the second novel amounts to taking pot shots at weak-minded jerks. Still, it's a lot of fun. I really can't stand the whole vortex-crystal-non-linear crowd and Jones really lays into them from the beginning to the end of this novel.S/he has one insight in particular that I haven't seen elsewhere. S/he has her heroine, Nancy Cook, notice that none of the New Agers is either very attractive or very unattractive. She proposes that these are very ordinary people who desperately want to be regarded as special in some way. And so they embrace all these wacky, superficial and hypocritical poses, programs and gizmos in a lame attempt to set themselves apart from the mainstream in which they so richly deserve to remain.I rather missed Boaz Dixon, Chicago police detective and snappy dresser, who does not really show up until the last third or quarter of the book. Once he is on the scene, many loose ends are brought together very rapidly, although it doesn't feel rushed because there isn't really much to wrap up. Most of the charm, humor and interest in the book rests on the quality of Jones' jokes and commentary at the expense of Cook's New Age housemates. Jones is not cruel and shows some sympathy toward a few of the Sante Fe residents with which Prof. Cook interacts. If you like traditional mysteries, then I wouldn't bother with this book. The murders take place in Silicon Valley and Salt Lake City, far from Santa Fe and a few days before Prof. Cook arrives in town. You will be left to try to figure out which one of her housemates is the killer, while Prof. Cook does not even know that someone has been killed. The suspense will not exactly kill you and the resolution will not really surprise you. Like the first book, this social commentary presented in the form of a mystery novel.

A very well-crafted book. Jones knows how to write.

I finished Murder in the New Age last night. It was very interesting. There was not really that much of a plot, I mean, there were a couple of murders and a software theft, but the plot was almost incidental to the book. The book itself, however, was wonderful. It was obvious that the author did not, at any point, dog-it in his or her writing. Meaning, that they never took the easy way out. Every sentence, every word was carefully chosen. Writing this book was obviously hard work. There were no throw-away sentences, or paragraphs. Every paragaph was packed. Every word had a reason for being there. I used to think it was a sacrilige to write in a book. There are two points in this book that I had to underline. I could not contain myself. The first on page 71: "Because the New Age isn't new, it's pretty shopworn. It's been around in its current formats ever since the middle class found itself with a lot of leisure time on its hands." That gave me pause. I was in a discussion a couple of years ago in which a Univ. of Md.professor and another friend and I were discussing what we thought was the biggest problem in the country today: Crime, drugs, intrusive federal government, education, you know, the usual. After a while it occurred to me (and after a few years I still agree with myself) that the biggest problem in the country is greed. It could be argued that all major problems stem from greed. Well anyway, the above paragraph caused me to consider that perhaps another great evil in our society is a "middle class with a lot of leisure time on its hands". The other place I underlined was page 168, where the author wrote: "the two agents in the van listened to the householders proceeding with their lives--or rather, talking about how they were going to proceed with their lives one of these days." Of all the criticism or satire of New Age the book offered, this was the most devastating. I'm sure the author sat back after writing that one and felt pretty proud of it. There was one odd line on page 157, where the author writes: "Reader, I will not tell you that Nancy heard through the night air Boaz calling her name". It was the only point in the whole book where the author spoke in the first person or addressed the reader. Seemed like an editing slip-up. Perhaps the highest praise I can offer for the book is that it reminded me a bit of reading Somerset Maugham. When I read his writing, I would like to keep a note pad on hand to copy down all the cleaver, memorable lines in the book, but if I did that, I would almost be copying the book word-for-word. If I did the same with this book it would have come close.