Book Review - Mystery Play by Elizabeth Kostova

My Review

When Jay Turner's mother dies unexpectedly, he takes some time off from teaching to clear out his family home and decide what to do next.  He discovers a scrap of paper mentioning a Gilded Age actor named Gael Brogan.  He also receives a mysterious delivery of a book that belonged to Vlad Tepes (the real life Dracula).  As he looks into these items, his life changes and becomes dangerous.  He meets Riley (Rhiannon), a grad student who joins his quest and encounters a series of other people who knew his mother or who are connected to the mystery in some way.  

Mystery Play is the long awaited sequel to The Historian, which is one of my favorite books of all time.  Jay Turner's mother in Mystery Play is the young woman who was the protagonist in The Historian.  There is a definite link between the books and the mystery that Jay encounters.

Mystery Play is situated in New England and the dangerous, mysterious figure from the past is Gael Brogan, an acclaimed Irish actor working in America during the 1890's.  The story is told from various viewpoints, including Jay, the diary of Gael Brogan's leading lady (and real life love) Fern Quinn, an older librarian and researcher named Helsa Grace Dubose-Cummings, and the diary of Jay's mother from her younger years.  It is a big, sprawling story and a long read at 592 pages.  I enjoyed the "big book" aspect of Mystery Play because I felt fully immersed in the storytelling.  Since the characters from both books (Mystery Play and The Historian) are historians, narratives from different people - and different times - added a great deal to the story.

I liked Jay and Riley and felt invested in their story.  They are both intelligent, warm, sensitive characters.  I liked their friendship and romantic spark.  I also really liked Helsa, who helped them with research as they went along.

The long passages from Fern's diary were a bit more languid and leisurely for me, and I felt the book lost some momentum with these sections.  (I do see Fern as an important character but I would have liked shorter passages from her story.)

The writing is beautiful, as I expect from Elizabeth Kostova, with vivid descriptions and fully rounded characterizations.  There are passages like Helsa's memory:

"One of the more startling things about being alive, I’ve thought since I was a teenager at the Leaf School for Girls, is the way a day can change in the space of a moment— a day or a life. For example, that morning, when I was sitting in class at Leaf, a privileged high school student at an old Charleston desk scratched with sixty years of other privileged girls’ initials and unrequired crushes. One minute just smoothing my navy skirt on my thigh, twiddling my pencil over a quiz: Why does Huck finally decide to return home, and how does he feel about it? That was when they were still teaching Huckleberry Finn there. Then the classroom door opening with a fast click, and everything different forever after." (eBook location 5339).

The mystery aspect of this story was well done, with a number of twists and revelations throughout.  I guessed the big reveal earlier on, but found it very effective in the latter part of the book.

This is a very dark story and the violence is at times quite graphic.  (Dog lovers - skip chapter 43!)  There is also a stronger paranormal emphasis in this book than in The Historian.  I am not a horror reader and found some of the violent passages hard to read.  (I continued because I wanted to know what happened with Jay and Riley).

I am left with conflicting feelings about Mystery Play.  It's so well written, so unusual, with a compelling mystery . . . but at the same time, much darker and more visceral than my usual reads.  

Thanks to Ballantine Books and Netgalley for an advance reading copy of this book.