cover image Vanished in the Dunes: 
A Hamptons Mystery

Vanished in the Dunes: A Hamptons Mystery

Allan Retzky. Oceanview (Midpoint, dist.), $25.95 (240p) ISBN 978-1-60809-053-2

Retzky’s plodding first novel references classic predecessors like Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White, but fails to generate much suspense. Since Amos Posner was unjustly fired from his international trading position in Manhattan, he’s been living at his beach house in Amagansett with occasional visits to the city. His wife, who suspects he’s been unfaithful, has stopped visiting him on weekends. One morning on the Hampton Jitney, Posner meets the seductive Heidi Kashani, a resident in psychiatry at Mt. Sinai hospital, who persuades him to show her his beach house. When Posner returns to the house after briefly leaving Heidi alone there, he finds her dead from an apparent fall. Posner’s decision to bury her eventually brings Det. Peter Wisdom to his door and later Heidi’s obsessed lover, Dr. Henry Stern. Enter Brigid Kashani, Heidi’s look-alike sister, who adds a wild card to this three-cornered game. A climactic confrontation leads to a disappointing resolution. Agent: Ellen Levine, Trident Media. (July)