Game of Secrets

April 18, 2011
In 1950s New England, in the midst of a steamy affair with married Ada, Luce Weld is murdered. Tripp's third novel (after The Season of Open Water) explores, sometimes tediously, these events and their long-term consequences on Weld's daughter, Jane (12 when he was killed); her daughter, Marne; and Ada's sons, Ray and Huck. After moving home to escape an aimless California existence, Marne begins to date Ray and the relationship encourages her to think more deeply about her mother, who she sees as hopelessly rigid. Jane meets Ada for a weekly Scrabble match; they almost never discuss the affair or murder, instead they talk about their children and, unfortunately, the progress of the game, wherein each new tile signifies a shift in power and bogs down an otherwise affecting tale about the need to, and danger of, confronting the past. Tripp shifts between many points of view and darts from 2004 to key moments of the '50s and '60s, heading chapters with titles, names, and dates to keep the many players straight. The result is a familiar literary soap opera that offers some surprising delights.

February 15, 2011

The Scrabble game between Jane Weld and Ada Varick is no simple thing. Fifty years ago, Jane's father disappeared, and his skull was subsequently discovered with a bullet hole in it. Rumor had it that he was murdered by the husband of his mistress--yes, Ada Varick. Now Jane wants the truth. With book club pitches, an NPR interview, and a New England tour; Tripp is not huge but is building nicely, so this is worth watching.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2011
The Varick and Weld families have been inexorably linked since the 1950s, when Ada Varickhad a passionate affair with Luce Weld. The affair lasted until Luce disappeared. When a skull with a bullet hole in it turned up a few years later, everyone in the small New England town where they lived assumed it belonged to Luce and that Ada's alcoholic brute of a husband, Silas, was responsible. Fifty years later, Luce's daughter, Jane, is still seeking answers about her father's death. Jane meets Ada every week for a game of Scrabble, but it is the budding romance between her daughter Marne and Ada's son Ray that prompts Jane to finally confront Ada one July day in the hope of finally learning the truth about her father's demise. A gracefully told character study of three intelligent, forbidding women and the men who love them, wrapped up in a taut, suspenseful mystery, Tripp's third novel (following The Season of Open Water, 2005) builds to a surprising finish.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)