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| Plot Summary of The Face on the Wall |
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"Homer and Mary Kelly, Harvard professors, are helping their niece Annie get set up in her new home. Annie is a very successful children's author/illustrator with a history of unhappy relationships. She builds a beautiful new addition onto her home, her dream house. Most important to her is a 35 foot wall that she will illustrate with themes from children's literature.
Her problem is the Gasts, the family that rent the original half of her home. They have an eight-year-old son with Down syndrome, who they patently do not supervise adequately. In fact, their apparent inattentiveness is quite deliberate. They are angry and resentful about having this special needs child.
The little boy, Eddy is found dead, apparently fallen from scaffolding that Annie was using to paint her wall. It appears that he came in through a door that Annie insists she locked. The Gasts sue her, and she agrees to settlement to give up ownership of her home with an agreement that she can lease it. When they break the agreement to tear down Annie's house to build a swimming pool for their manipulative 10-year-old Charlene, Annie, the Kellys, and other friends mobilize in protest to stop the bulldozers.
Meanwhile the Kellys are also looking into the disappearance of a former student of Mary's. She was a battered wife gone missing. They suspect her husband. They track the clues in both cases through newspaper articles, trail tracking of suspects, and their own observations of the people involved to pin down the the two murderers."
Susan Coffey, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of The Face on the Wall |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Book
descript. of violence and chases - 10%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 50%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30%
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 10%
Tone of story
- Dry-cynical
How difficult to spot villain?
- Moderately Challenging
Time/era of story:
- present (2000-2010)
What % of story relates directly
to the mystery, not the subplot?
- 70%
Special suspect?
- relative
Murder of certain profession?
- lawyer creatures
Misc. Murder Plotlets
- local police w/ IQ of a houseplant
- "All in the family" murder
- Proving innocence of very obvious suspect
Kind of investigator
- skilled citizen investigator
Kid or adult book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Any non-mystery subplot?
- feelings towards family/friends
Crime Thriller
Yes
Murder Mystery (killer unknown)
Yes
Main Character
Gender
- Female
Profession/status:
- artist
Age:
- 20's-30's
Eccentric/Mental:
Yes
Eccentric:
- eccentric
How much violence does he/she use?
- none
Ethnicity/Race
- White/American
How sensitive is this character?
- soggy whimpering jelly muffin
Sense of humor
- Strong but gentle sense of humor
Intelligence
- Very much smarter than other characters
Physique
- average physique
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 20's-30's
Profession/status:
- a lawyer creature
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- an average amount
Motive of antagonist
- money/treasure
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- Northeast
Small town?
Yes
Small town people:
- nice, like Andy/Opie/Aunt Bee
Style
Part of a series?
Yes
Person
- mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately detailed references to deaths
How many deaths?
- 2
Amount of dialog
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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Click here for more information about this book
Jane Langton Resident Scholar Profiles
TOP SCHOLAR:
 Susan Coffey
SCHOLARS:
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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