Terrapin: A Mystery

Terrapin: A Mystery, written by T.M. Doran. Ignatius Press, 2012. 392 pages. Hardcover, $24.95.

 

T.M. Doran’s 2011 novel Toward the Gleam was a tour de force of historical speculative fiction, featuring lots of my favorite authors and a rollickingly absorbing adventure. Terrapin, Doran’s follow-up novel, is very different from its predecessor. Whereas Toward the Gleam was epic in its scope; Terrapin is subtler and more personal, focusing primarily on the conscience and soul of one man, and how the sins of the past can never be forgotten until they are forgiven.

 

Terrapin is the tale of Dennis Cole and his three lifelong best friends, who reunite after decades of misadventures, mistakes, and misunderstandings. The relaxing get-together is thrown into chaos when one member of the party may or may not have been murdered. Other deaths follow, and as the story unfolds, a series of revelations follow, and it is discovered that none of the characters are exactly what they claim to be, or even what they personally think they are.

 

To reveal too much of the plot is to ruin the reading experience. The novel’s storyline is not linear. One chapter is set in the present day, while another is set decades in the past. The theme that “the child is father of the man” runs throughout the narrative, as each flashback illustrates formative events that shaped the minds and souls of the characters.  

 

Readers ought to be aware that Terrapin is not really a traditional whodunit, though readers certainly can study the book for clues that all point towards the truth. The book is a mystery, but perhaps it is best understood as a psychological– and spiritual– study. The disappearances and murders are certainly part of the puzzle, but the heart of the book comes from finding out how all of the men received the intangible scars that mar them, as well as discovering the characters’ secrets, some innocent, some not so innocent. 

 

Terrapin is an artfully written book, but it is a dense one. This is not a criticism, but rather a warning for the casual reader. The book recovers careful study and focus, otherwise the plot, which shifts back in forth in time like the fifth season of Lost, can leave the casual reader baffled, and it can become difficult to differentiate amongst the characters unless one pays close attention. 

 

Ultimately, I found that Terrapin was a rich and rewarding reading experience, although the enjoyment was marred somewhat by the absence of a character that I really liked and genuinely cared about, and would have liked to have been my friend in real life. The characters are intriguing, but the fact that they are persons one might be interested in studying rather than people one would actually want to know dampens the emotional impact of the novel.

 

Philosophically, Terrapin is a book that avoids easy answers while acknowledging that there are some very important questions that every man must ask if he is to be truly alive and genuinely aware of the meaning of life. The best relationship amongst any of the characters is between Dennis and his father, T.A.  Dennis is a part-time mystery writer, but he is constantly disappointed by the fact that the mysteries in his life are not as clearly solvable as those in his books. The many conversations between father and son do not provide concrete answers to the big questions in life, but instead illustrate the mental and spiritual quest that everybody must pursue if they wish to grow closer to God.

–Chris Chan

This review first appeared in Gilbert!