Threats by Amelia Gray is weird but compelling. The first
page is ominous and one wants to read on to see what is up…. The title comes from
threats that David keeps finding in curious places like the sugar bowl,
silverware draw and in his dirty laundry. He has no idea of the origin of these
threats. Nor do we.
It is a simple story
with few characters albeit all total loons. Chico an odd detective, Shelly a character that spends her time in the
laundromat folding clothes, Marie a pseudo psychiatrist that has an office in
David ‘s garage of which he was not aware, it seems before Frannie’s departure arrangements were made with Marie for the
“office space.” Aileen who was a wacky coworker
of the presumed dead wife Frannie. A few
other strangers drift in and out of the narrative. None of them very involved with the story but
they appear mostly to make us aware of what a screwball David is-----however,
he is nutty enough without being surrounded by loons.
David lost his wife under suspicious circumstances. Chico, the detective assigned to his case, seems
to have been involved with the family many years ago before the death of
Frannie. It would seem that David’s
mother had killed his sister and was in an asylum but David only says that his mother
left the family and moved to a home for women.
It is speculative since nothing is made clear in Threats.
David was once a dentist and lost his license it is implied
by filling a tiny baby’s tooth buds. He
has kept all his old dental xrays and finds comfort in sleeping on them. We never know what happened to Frannie or
much about her except she was tall and gangly.
Did I mention this is a bizarre story I wanted to finish the book to
see how she wrapped it up---well she does not wrap things up and I am just as
confused as to what happened as I was when I started reading. She is an engrossing writer with an active
imagination.
