Molly Marx is dead, dead, dead, but she doesn’t feel it and isn’t ready to let go. She looks down from “the Duration” on the world she left and the people she loves with a decidedly other-worldly perspective but with her sense of humor still alive and kicking.
This breath-of-fresh-air novel is part chicklit, part murder mystery, and all charm. The mystery boasts a unique detective, Molly, herself, from up above. She can’t quite remember exactly how she died, but now that she’s in the Duration for the duration, she has nothing but time to try to figure it out. Could she have been killed by her philandering husband, jealous sister, secret boyfriend? Could it have been one of the competitive femme-fatales who people her perfect-seeming life? Perhaps she wasn’t murdered at all but simply the victim of unfortunate accident. She trains an analytical eye on the doings down below as well as a protective one on her beloved young daughter as she tries to make sense of it all and gradually learns to understand what really matters.
With a cast of characters purposefully and hilariously stereotyped, a touch of irony and some down-to-earth philosophy, Koslow’s novel thoroughly entertains.
Michal Hoschander Malen is the editor of Jewish Book Council’s young adult and children’s book reviews. A former librarian, she has lectured on topics relating to literacy, run book clubs, and loves to read aloud to her grandchildren.