Weekly Reader: The Arboretum After Midnight by W.T. O'Brien; Murder Victim Steals The Murder Mystery After Death

 Weekly Reader: The Arboretum After Midnight by W.T. O'Brien; Murder Victim Steals The Murder Mystery After Death

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: With Murder Mysteries, sometimes there are specific parts that take the Reader's focus. Sometimes, it's the lead detective. The Reader is interested in their personal struggles as well as their investigative process. Sometimes it's the setting. The location and time period are so detailed that the mystery can't be set anywhere. Sometimes, like in the case of W.T. O'Brien's Aboretum After Midnight, it's the murder victim that is the most interesting part.

In the case of Arboretum, the murder victim is Whitney Colliers, personal assistant to interior decorator, Lorian Piaff. Beautiful but domineering, she takes charge of any project including roughshod over Max, Lorian's employee and who bears conflicted feelings over Whitney's sexy appearance but high handed demeanor. Lorian is practically dependent on Whitney's insights so she is well regarded in business but not so much personally. Then after a party, she is found dead in a park with her body fallen on the ground and her head smashed open by a brick.

Detectives Roscoe Romar and Peter Seagram investigate Whitney's mysterious death. They uncover deeper secrets in the deceased woman's life including an unhappy childhood, many lovers, and several enemies. The more that the detectives and others search into Whitney's past, the more that they learn what a complex troubled woman that she really was.

 Much like Laura Palmer in Twin Peaks or Rebecca DeWinter in Daphne DuMaurier's novel Rebecca, Whitney leaves quite an impression even after her untimely demise. In fact, she is made a more intriguing character the more other characters find out about her than if she were still alive and able to defend herself. Roman and Seagram, as well as Whitney's colleagues uncover layers and layers of Whitney's past and personality. These discoveries reveal a fundamental truth. We never really know the people that we are often in contact with until after death and even then maybe only a third of it comes to light if they died under mysterious circumstances.

Whitney's story is filled with contradictions that cause those layers to be opened. She was arguing with another woman at a party the night before she died. The fight was about to erupt into a catfight but about what? Were they fighting over a man? Was the argument work related? Were they a couple? Was she more than work colleagues with Max or Lorian or both? Who were her lovers anyway? 

What about Whitney's estranged mother and her background? Did her family escape from Cold War Eastern Europe and if so what was the price for their trip to freedom and what did Whitney (or her mother) provide to obtain it? Each question leads to more questions about Whitney's character and the circumstances surrounding her death. What is the huge takeaway in this book is how the facts towards Whitney's life as told by others are altered by their interpretation of her: innocent victim, ambitious businesswoman, seductive siren, troubled soul and or all of the above.

The Arboretum After Midnight shows that sometimes with murder mysteries, the loudest voice heard is that of the murder victim.