Closed in Silence

Although the mystery genre has stretched its boundaries during the last 20 years, certain requirements pertaining to plot and motivation, e.g., who committed the crime and why, still obtain. Drury, in this disappointing third Tyler Jones tale (following Silent Words, 1996), skirts those demands as she focuses almost exclusively on portraying the relationships among her characters. Tyler, a San Francisco journalist, attends a 20th reunion with five college friends on an isolated island in Puget Sound. Tyler, Mary Sharon, Rachel and Teddie are lesbians; Grace has remained asexual; Julie has married. Their fond memories of participation in a burgeoning feminist movement, and their subsequent successes and struggles reveal six smart, accomplished women, articulate in feminist and lesbian polemics. Then a storm cuts telephone service with the mainland. Tyler and Mary Sharon discover a dead man they don't recognize; the others confess they each had a connection to him. With all mutually suspicious of one another, the tension mounts, forcing secrets into the open that eventually draw the six women closer. In an anticlimax, they're rescued by the Coast Guard and plan their next get-together and readers are left, unforgivably, to guess at the murderer's identity and motive. (Sept.)