The Edge of the Gulf

Book Review by Reader Maid

Here's another review from my friend Reader Maid who favors the very best in international crime fiction.

I'd like to read this one and see if I like Hury's character's movie reviews.

The Edge of the Gulf - by Hadley Hury

Hadley Hury's debut novel, "The Edge of the Gulf" first published in 2003, shows a great deal of promise--likeable characters, great setting, and an engaging if somewhat unrealistic plot. Unfortunately, other elements prevent this otherwise engrossing work from achieving its full potential.

The book opens on Florida's Emerald Coast where Charlie Brompton, a wealthy, childless man has amassed a small fortune in real estate assets, including two very popular restaurants and a significant holding of undeveloped beach property. He plans to put the beach property, worth at least one hundred million, in a trust to ensure its environmental preservation but has not yet changed his will that bequeaths his estate to his cousin, Peter Cullen, now deceased.

His only remaining blood relative is Peter's son, Charles (Chaz), recently married, who appears to have finally overcome his misspent youth and is operating a successful art business in Atlanta. Also recently Charlie's old friend, Hudson DeForest, struggling to move on from the loss of his wife two years earlier, has finally returned for the summer to his nearby cabin to work on a collection of film critiques for his soon-to-be-published book and to rejoin the circle of caring neighbors after a self-imposed absence.

Into this close-knit group come Chaz and his bride, a pair so beautiful and so perfect they turn heads wherever they go. The tension of the narrative derives from the newlyweds' plot to get their hands on Charlie's beach property before he can change his will.

While Hury displays considerable talent in manipulating the storyline for maximum suspense and the narrative itself provides solid entertainment, I found the constant interruption by film reviews both contrived and pretentious. If I had wanted to read a collection of movie critiques I would have bought a book of movie critiques and not a mystery/thriller. Perhaps Hury was trying to expand an otherwise short novel but I would rather he had worked just a bit harder on the plot and left the reviews on the cutting room floor.