Aviary Book Reviews

Aviary by Deirdre McNamer Book Summary

A crime at a Montana senior residence brings multiple secrets to light in “a literary thriller written with [Deirdre] McNamer’s trademark emotional acuity” (Chicago Review of Books).

At the deteriorating Pheasant Run, the occupants keep their secrets and sadnesses behind closed apartment doors. Kind Leo Umberti, formerly an insurance agent, now spends his days painting abstract landscapes and mourning a long-ago loss. Down the hall, retired professor Rydell Clovis tries desperately to stay fit enough to restart a career in academia. Cassie McMackin, on the same floor, has seemingly lost everything—her husband and only child dead within months of each other—leaving her loosely tethered to this world. And a few doors away, her friend, Viola Six, is convinced of a criminal conspiracy involving the building’s widely disliked manager, Herbie Bonebright.

Cassie and Viola dream of leaving their unhappy lives behind, but one woman’s plan is interrupted—and the other’s unexpectedly set into motion—when a fire breaks out in Herbie’s apartment. Lander Maki, the city’s chief fire inspector, finds the circumstances around the fire highly suspicious. Viola has disappeared. So has Herbie. And a troubled teen was glimpsed fleeing the scene. In trying to fit together the pieces of this complicated puzzle, Lander finds himself learning more than expected about human nature and about personal and corporate greed as it is visited upon the vulnerable. From a writer “with a keen sense of the small detail that says it all” (Chicago Tribune), Aviary weaves a compelling tapestry of love, grief, and the mysteries of memory and old age.

“Aviary is as questioning as its characters, heart-haunted, buoyant, and rich with the wonders that make life worth living.” —Chicago Review of Books

“Even when it hurts—and, if you have anything in the way of feelings, this novel will make you weep—Aviary is a cleansing antidote to the last few years of political and cultural turmoil, a salve to combat our still-raging health crisis, a tonic for our social media spinout . . . This quietly important book offers hope as it tackles grief and isolation and our essential humanity.” —New York Times Book Review

“The residents at Pheasant Run are acutely aware of the world’s indifference to them. They no longer work. Their great love affairs are behind them. Why should they fight back? But by the end of this underdog novel, Ms. McNamer has developed poignant reasons that they do.” —Wall Street Journal

“Beautifully realized characters, a wonderfully constructed plot . . . this novel is a delight from start to finish.” —Booklist

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Aviary (Deirdre McNamer) Book Reviews 2024

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