The Mad, Mad Murders of Marigold Way

Benson is best known as the first American author of continuation James Bond novels, but apart from being fictional and starring a man, this unusual and excellent read is the furthest thing from 007 imaginable. The story starts with an omniscient, unnamed narrator introducing readers to Lincoln Grove, Illinois, where two back-to-back streets (map included) are the setting for what the gleeful narrator describes as an updated version of Thornton Wilder’s play “Our Town.” (Readers will also be reminded of Jim Carrey’s synthetic surrounds in “The Truman Show.”) Scott Hatcher is having an unusual day there, awaking to find his wife, Marie, gone. They haven’t been getting along but have agreed to postpone a divorce decision because it’s May 2020 and the world is in pandemic turmoil. When Scott finally reports Marie missing, it turns out that a neighbor’s husband is also AWOL, a man who has recently been the subject of both Marigold Way gossip and police attention as masks, drugs and other COVID-related items have been stolen from his job. As the missing-persons investigation becomes much more, the narrator’s cheerful, exclamation-point filled observations take on a sinister cast and the neighbors—this takes place almost solely in one setting, just like a play—all become suspect, their foibles and ambitions revealed. What a saga! As well as “Our Town,” readers can try this alongside Máirtín Ó Cadhain’s The Dirty Dust: Cré na Cille, which features a town’s dead folks gossiping together in a graveyard