Kelly, Mary Anne 1949-

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Kelly, Mary Anne 1949-

PERSONAL:

Born January, 1949, in Queens, NY; married Peppy Castro (musician; divorced); remarried: husband's name Tommy; children: (second marriage) Tony.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Rockville Centre, NY. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer. Worked as a model and lyricist.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

Park Lane South, Queens, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1990.

Foxglove, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1992.

Keeper of the Mill, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1995.

Jenny Rose, Thomas Dunne Books (New York, NY), 1999.

The Cordelia Squad, Thomas Dunne Books (New York, NY), 2003.

Pack up the Moon, Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Mary Anne Kelly's first novel, Park Lane South, Queens, called "a witty, slightly wacky mystery" by Kliatt's Claire Rosser, introduces Claire Breslinsky. Claire is an attractive thirtyish photographer who, after losing her twin brother, a police officer who was killed while on duty, has traveled extensively and now returns to Richmond Hill, Queens, and her eccentric family. Her clan includes her parents, Stan and Mary; two sisters, fashion writer Carmela and police officer Zinnie; Claire's four-year-old nephew Michaelean; a gay former son-in-law; and a dog named "the Mayor." All approve of hunky detective Johnny Benedetto, who is investigating the death of two children. Claire resists his charms for a time, because of the way her brother died, but cannot hold out for long.

Claire is temporarily in danger because she has innocently captured on film a clue to the crime while taking photos in her neighborhood. The crime must be quickly solved, because Michaelean may also become a victim. Michele Slung reviewed the book for the Washington Post Book World, commenting that upon finishing the story she found it "hard to relinquish the warmth and vitality of the Breslinsky household."

In Foxglove, Claire and Johnny are married and have a three-year-old son, Anthony. They move into a house across the street from Claire's old friend Theresa, who soon dies, apparently from a stroke. However, Claire suspects Theresa's cheating husband and worries about Theresa's daughter, Dharma, who appears to be neglected. Other plot developments include Claire's former Indian ashram teacher dropping in for a visit, and Carmela, now married to a Polish diplomat, writing and producing a show based on the classic fairy tale Snow White, in which she casts members of her family. Booklist's Stuart Miller commented that Kelly "combines a first-rate mystery with a resonant exploration of the multihued nature of family relationships."

A Publishers Weekly contributor suggested that in Keeper of the Mill, "Kelly deftly constructs a complex plot whose resolution bares residual horrors of Germany's Nazi past." Claire is now forty years old and has another child, a girl she has named after Theresa. Claire travels to Munich to attend the wedding of an old friend, to be held at Hildegarde's Mill, now a guest house. By coincidence, Claire's neighbor, Iris von Lillienfeld, had passed through the inn while fleeing the Nazis years earlier. Iris tells Claire about a cache of diamonds her uncle hid from the Nazis by burying them near the mill. After Claire arrives, the owner of the mill, who had helped Iris escape during the war, is murdered, as is his housekeeper, leading Claire to suspect that others know about the treasure. Miller noted that the subplot, "concerning the stability of Claire's marriage and her fascination with an English director making a film at the mill, adds spice."

Claire has a lot on her mind as she again travels in Jenny Rose, this time to Ireland to attend the funeral of her aunt. Claire has found her husband with another woman and now considers igniting an old flame of her own. She meets Jenny Rose, a niece about whom she had no previous knowledge, and discovers that it was not her aunt but her aunt's female lover who has died. In a Library Journal review, Susan Clifford called the plot "deftly handled." Booklist's Holly Cooley remarked that Jenny Rose is "a fresh breeze of a book, tempestuous as life."

In The Cordelia Squad, Claire is divorced and about to enter into a relationship with fireman Enoch O'Rourke. She and her teenaged children have moved into an old Victorian mansion filled with secret passageways, still in Richmond Hill, and the family is renovating it as a bed and breakfast. Claire and Enoch meet when fire breaks out in the house and he comes to her rescue; when fire erupts again, arson is suspected, particularly since other old homes in the area have also been targeted. It is after this second event that Claire seems headed for serious love, which also blooms for Zinnie, Carmela, and young Anthony. The Boston Globe's Diane White noted that the characters "make the Richmond Hill neighborhood come alive."

Kelly departs from the mystery genre with Pack up the Moon, a prequel to the Claire Breslinsky novels that finds a young twenty-year-old Claire working as a model in Germany. From there she takes a train trip with some bohemian friends from Istanbul to the Himalayas. "What follows is a peek at the indulgent whims of the rich, the moody temperaments of artists, and the lure of the strange and exotic," wrote Carolyn Kubisz in Booklist. Along for the adventure are an artist, actress, and Dr. Blacky von Osterwald, with whom Claire has an affair as they travel to India to make a film about Ghandi. A Kirkus Reviews contributor commented on the novel, noting: "Lacking obvious structure or direction, Kelly's latest nevertheless flows unstoppably." A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote that the author "paints a vivid portrait of 1970s India."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, December 1, 1992, Stuart Miller, review of Foxglove, p. 651; December 1, 1995, Miller, review of Keeper of the Mill, p. 612; August, 1999, Holly Cooley, review of Jenny Rose, p. 2026; April 15, 2003, Beth Leistensnider, review of The Cordelia Squad, p. 1449; November 15, 2006, Carolyn Kubisz, review of Pack up the Moon, p. 32.

Boston Globe, August 10, 2003, Diane White, review of The Cordelia Squad, p. H6.

Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 1990, review of Park Lane South, Queens, pp. 142-143; April 1, 2003, review of The Cordelia Squad, p. 509; September 1, 2006, review of Pack up the Moon, p. 867.

Kliatt, September, 1993, Claire Rosser, review of Park Lane South, Queens, p. 10.

Library Journal, February 1, 1990, Rex E. Klett, review of Park Lane South, Queens, p. 110; September 1, 1999, Susan Clifford, review of Jenny Rose, p. 233.

New York Times Book Review, November 19, 1995, Marilyn Stasio, review of Keeper of the Mill, p. 39.

Publishers Weekly, January 19, 1990, Sybil Steinberg, review of Park Lane South, Queens, p. 100; November 16, 1992, review of Foxglove, p. 50; October 16, 1995, review of Keeper of the Mill, p. 45; July 26, 1999, review of Jenny Rose, p. 63; September 4, 2006, review of Pack up the Moon, p. 37.

Washington Post Book World, April 15, 1990, Michele Slung, review of Park Lane South, Queens, p. 9.