REVIEW: Shady Hollow

Shady Hollow: A Murder Mystery by Juneau Black

ShadyHollow: A Murder Mystery by Juneau Black, is an anthropomorphic mystery novel set in the town of the same name. It’s a rather idyllic ‘Mayberry-esque’ town where serious crime is almost unheard of. In classic fashion, it lists the cast of characters we have to look forward to in the beginning of the book, as if we were preparing to settle in for a play of sorts. An interesting omission, to me, is the listing of the species for the cast. Some of their character descriptions do mention what they are, but many are left for us to fill in the gaps until we meet the character in the book itself. Luckily, Shady Hollow follows the old tradition of giving relatively animalistic names to the anthropomorphic characters. For instance, our main character is named Vera Vixen and she is, of course, a fox. Others are a little more subtle like Lenore Lee being a raven who owns the local bookstore, Nevermore Books, and the ursine chief of police being named Theodore. 

Despite the silly names and a setting that would appear to be right out of a Saturday-morning cartoon, Shady Hollow is not at all shy about jumping into the serious realm of murder and intrigue. In the very first chapter, it jumps right into the grisly murder of Otto Sumpf, a frog who is the local crotchety grump, and who is found face down in the river with a knife in his back. From there, the story fans out into exploring the lives of various townsfolk and uncovering all of their little secrets and hidden affairs (including some literal affairs). This leads to more characters than one would expect having reason to murder Otto and shake up the relative serenity of Shady Hollow. As the book goes on, it expands into the classic murder mystery format of laying out alibis and examining motives until the killer is finally revealed.

Interestingly, the book plays around with everything that it knows itself to be. Even though it’s considered to be a ‘funny animal’ book in the same vein as The Wind in the Willows, its animals never shy away from being scandalous or deadly serious, turning the typical ‘playful and happy-go-lucky’ animal stereotype on its head. Characters get drunk, have one-night stands, tell open-face lies, have broken marriages… but none of it ever goes TOO far over the line. One of the characters being a mistress is heavily implied, but never is anything sexual seen. Characters may occasionally say and do awful things to one another and can fight quite bitterly, but there is no swearing or foul language of any kind. Even the murders are written in an oddly ‘off-screen’ manner, where the murder itself is never seen and the injuries are usually physically minor and hidden from view. It’s almost odd to think that everything that we actually get to see, if it were a film, would put this book within a PG rating in terms of content, yet the mystery is treated very much like an adult affair. The motives that characters have can be heart-breaking or cruel, even venturing into the realm of a small town’s socially accepted racism or distrust of outsiders. Make no mistake: this is a work of fiction that is probably best enjoyed with an adult mindset. It’s like watching the stories of Winnie-The-Pooh unravel and reveal what happens when Rabbit finally has enough and smacks Tigger with his shovel over the rampant property destruction.

The mystery novel aspect is played around with as well, and done in a very enjoyable fashion. Early on, Vera takes on the case of Otto’s murder and determines that she needs an expert’s opinion on the matter. Rather than going to a police detective, she confides in her best friend Lenore, who specializes in reading mystery novels. The pair constantly deconstruct what should normally happen in a mystery and compare it with the situations they’re facing, including checking up on alibis and even typical suspects and false leads. While not only fun, it also helps to put the reader into the proper mindset of wanting to crack the case themselves.

With all of that praise, there are a few things that hold the book back. First, the book is a little short, giving us only about 200 pages of very fast-moving text. By the end, it feels like we’ve watched an episode or two of a television series rather than read a full-length novel. Granted, this is a minor problem, as the pace of the novel is brisk and it kept me pretty engaged throughout, but I really would have enjoyed taking some time to learn more about the world of Shady Hollow and the lives of the various characters in it. The drama of the book is a little on the low side because of this. Also, as a related problem, some of the characters are painfully one-dimensional, despite being important enough to warrant a listing in the ‘cast list’ at the beginning of the book. BW Stone, the always angry and always shouting skunk who manages the local newspaper is probably the worst offender, being little more than a skunk-based caricature of J. Jonah Jameson from Spider Man. 

Ya know, his hair always DID
look kind of skunk-like

Characters like these make it feel like the book is a little tonally confused, as it will try to impart the gravity of a murder and social problems at one moment and remind you that this isn’t a children’s tale, but then it tries to be a little too silly or stereotypical and avoids depth. It kind of makes me wonder if the authors are straddling the line between adult and childish writing because they themselves couldn’t decide on an audience to market this towards. Considering how anthropomorphic fiction IS usually considered to be in the realm of Teen or Children’s literature by most publishers, I could certainly understand such a problem. It also would explain the fairly low-key cover design of a fox silhouetted underneath the title and the ‘A Murder Mystery’ subtitle. A cover fully displaying the anthropomorphic cast with all their vibrant colors and personalities would give a very different feel and might sway too far towards one side or the other. It’s a shame, though, as I would have very much liked to see how the author envisioned this cast!

In the end, despite the little problems I’ve mentioned, I’d give this book a hearty recommendation for fans of mysteries, inventive stories, and anthropomorphic fiction! Not only is it a fun, quick read, but there also looks to be more on the way, if the ‘Coming Soon’ list at the front of the book is any indication. Considering how rare it is for me to see something that bridges my love for both mysteries and anthropomorphic fiction, I’m certainly hoping we’ll see the next book in this series sooner rather than later!

Stand aside, Basil of Baker Street! It's time for the Great Raccoon Detective!

Until next time,

Happy reading, all!

-Chammy

Currently reading:

The Chronicles of Flurry the Bear by J. S. Skye