Brent Monahan’s mystery, ‘The Jekyl Island Club’ is a great glimpse into the lives of the incredibly filthy rich in the last years of the nineteenth century. The setting is Jekyl Island off the coast of Georgia near Brunswick, which was the playground for the ultra-wealthy such as J. P. Morgan and Joseph Pulitzer, both of whom appear in the novel.
The story opens as a member of the club is found murdered and Morgan tries to pressure the local sheriff, John Le Brun, into concluding it was an accidental death by a poacher. An open and shut case. Le Brun, not one to be bullied, insists on a thorough investigation to find the murderer but also what the millionaires are hiding on their exclusive resort. With his somewhat duplicitous deputy Warfield Tidewell, Le Brun sets out interviewing the members on the island and, at length, uncovers some very ugly truths and politically motivated agendas. President McKinley visits the club during the events in the mystery but never becomes more than a peripheral character and exits the story without incident.
Although the details and facts behind the island and club, its members and the political climate of the time are historically accurate and wonderfully written, the story tends to drag for much of the book. Since clues to the murder are few and no one is willing to cooperate, the sheriff and deputy spend most of their time interviewing and re-interviewing club members, making little progress.
The most entertaining part of the novel is Monahan’s portrayal of Joseph Pulitzer, the news tycoon, as aging and nearly blind but still sharp and very witty. I’m not certain how precise the depiction is but this Pulitzer adds much to the story, with his jokes and over-bearing ego.
The story does pick up the pace a bit after one of the club’s servants is murdered in what appears to be a random act of burglary at a bar on the mainland. The action moves along from that point with the sheriff and the deputy finding more clues and finally gaining respect among the titans of industry.
The conclusion, however, is rather complicated, which is a sharp contrast to the rest of the story. For the first three-fourths of the book, the sheriff and the deputy find very few clues and even fewer are given to the reader when, in the last chapters, the bulk of the evidence is found. The sheriff reveals the solution in a long and meticulous monologue during which the reader is as impatient with him as are Morgan and Pulitzer, when they angrily urge him to get to the point.
It is an entertaining read, despite the lull in action. The characters are colorful and the writing is superb. One can get a great lesson in U. S. history if one is paying attention. This certainly was much more enjoyable than any history text book.
(previously published on ezinearticles.com)
