Although published in 1976, A Death in the Life exudes a certain late 1950s Greenwich Village vibe. After all, who really said After all, who still really said “dig it” to mean “like” or “understand” by the time Gerald Ford was president?Our protagonist, Julie Hayes, is a second-rate actress who takes refuge in a marriage to Geoffrey Hayes, a New York Times columnist 15 years her senior. With him gone on assignment so much, Julie spends her time in the sort of housewifely boredom easily recognized by anyone who has read The Feminine Mystique. Julie decides to turn to fortune telling to beat her ennui, teaches herself tarot reading, and sets up shop in West 44th Street, which was quite a dicey neighborhood in New York City in the 1970s. While there, Julie makes the acquaintance of a young prostitute named Rita Morgan. Soon thereafter, Julie’s friend, Pete Mallory, who lives a floor above Rita, is found murdered in Rita’s apartment with Rita nowhere to be found. What connection could there possibly have been between Peter Mallory, a renowned off-Broadway scene designer and the center of the Actors Forum, and a young runaway turned street walker? Julie decides to find out, as much to discover who Pete Mallory really was as to discover the identity of his murderer. I loved enmeshing myself in the life of Julie Hayes, a severely clinically depressed woman wandering aimlessly through her own life. In A Death in the Life, it is Pete’s death that gives Julie’s life some much-needed meaning. I really look forward to seeing where she goes and how she heals in this four-book series. The book was not quite noir and not really a cozy but a hybrid, and I enjoyed it despite it’s neither fish-nor-fowl quality.
