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(More customer reviews)M.E. Kerr's "Fell" trilogy is now compiled in one book, covering all three: "Fell," "Fell Back," and "Fell Down." While it's now commonplace to put old trilogies in one book, it doesn't really work out in this case. Though Kerr's vaguely fantastical prose and tense plotting are a delight to read, the story falls short in the last third, where everything seems to come unraveled.
In "Fell," John Fell is an ordinary guy in a semi-ordinary town, with a shopaholic mother and a wealthy WASP girlfriend whose father is doing everything he can to break them up. His life takes an unexpected turn when a man he knows offers to send him to a wealthy prep school, pretending to be his own son. Needless to say, Fell jumps at the chance. At first he adjusts well into the rhythms of his new school, even being inducted into the elite Sevens group. But then he discovers that his benefactor's motives aren't all benevolent, and there may be murder in the air.
"Fell Back" takes place directly after "Fell," in the aftermath of a seeming suicide. But Fell doesn't believe the boy's death was suicide -- he heard a scream. As he delves deeper into the mystery, he's also enlisted to divert a local townie girl from the man she is besotted with -- and this involvement leads him to a clash with the FBI.
"Fell Down" follows the finale of "Fell Back," when one of Fell's friends dies in a suspicious car crash. Fell is, unsurprisingly, determined to find out the truth, but he's seriously contemplating leaving the school forever. After encountering his ex-girlfriend Keats, Fell begins to delve into a twenty-year-old mystery -- the mystery of the driver in the crash, Lenny Last, who was once a member of Sevens himself. Lenny's best friend mysteriously vanished many years before, and it seems to be linked to a malevolent ventriloquist's dummy...
In the first two thirds of the book, Kerr proves herself to be an outstanding writer. The pace is quick, the prose is simple but evocative, and the characterizations are excellent. Unfortunately, the last third doesn't quite match up to the beginning. Kerr seems to drop many of the threads she had wound together in "Fell" and "Fell Back," in favor of a story that seems more than a little surreal compared to the stark realism of the first two. Too much focus is on Lenny and Nelson, and not enough on Fell and his friends, enemies and schoolmates; additionally, the idea of an evil inanimate dummy is somehow hard to swallow. It will also be rather disappointing to readers who want a slam-bang conclusion to the Fell
storyline.
Fell is an endearing everyman, an ordinary cop's son who has few misconceptions or genuine flaws. He may be a little naive, but he remains steady and reliable throughout the book. Some characters, like his mother, his teachers, and some of his classmates remain as insubstantial as ghosts. Others are as vibrant -- or even more so -- than real people.
And Kerr does not pretend that anyone is uncomplicated. Almost every person in this book has their hidden thoughts, motives, and actions; an example would be the older girl that Fell dated, and who was secretly having an affair with his benefactor. The writing style has a slightly fantastical edge to it. While the plot is more of a murder mystery, there is a slight feel of unreality to the proceedings, as if anything could happen. The frequent changeovers -- where a seedy lowlife can be revealed as an FBI agent -- make this feeling even more prominent. And she manages to mingle romance, action, mystery, murder, surreal edges and a dash of the teen angst vibe.
Though the last third is deeply flawed and not entirely satisfying, overall the Fell trilogy is an intriguing, slightly surreal read. Fans of murder mysteries and coming-of-age stories will find a good, if not entirely solid read here.
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