I picked up The Callender Papers after reading a reference to it, and wondering how it would compare with Cynthia Voigt’s other books. I read several of her others (Homecoming, Dicey’s Song and Jackaroo) as a teen, and had kind of a love hate relationship with them. Those books are very much products of their time (the early 1980s) and were very bleak and depressing – think of the avocado green, puke brown and mustard yellow that pervaded the 1970s and you’ll understand the mentality of the books. I was interested to see if The Callender Papers was less bleak. Sort of?
In it, the young heroine Jean leaves Boston to spend the summer reviewing family papers for an artist living in Vermont. He is the New England archetype, cold and reserved but ultimately honorable. Nearby live his estranged brother-in-law and family, who are golden and fey and charming. Jean must solve the mystery of the artist’s wife’s death and missing child, and learns that the attractive, fun brother-in-law is not a good guy while the dour New Englanders are the good people. It is a classic gothic mystery, with an old mansion, endangered heroine, and neatly wrapped up finish. Definitely less bleak than some of her other books, but I can’t say I really enjoyed it.
