Don’t Go Alone!

Margaret LeNois
A Better Be Write Publisher, LLC (2006)
ISBN 10: 0977197131 13: 9780977197132
Reviewed by Nina Larson for Reader Views (6/06)

I definitely have no urge to repeat either the traveling or the adventures in this book!  “Don’t Go Alone!” by Margaret Lenois is less of a travel/ adventure novel and more a mystery on the line of Agatha Christie’s “Ten Little Indians”.
 
The plot line starts with a traveling CEO, Michael Bannagan, arrested for the murder of a woman who bought the farm just outside his hotel room door.  He protests his complete innocence of everything, including having sex with her, despite strong police evidence to the contrary.  During the police investigation, they discover a string of murders at every hotel Bannagan stayed at for the past six months.  Adding spice to the situation, Lenois gradually introduces his jealous, plastic-y wife, the mysterious online lover he met in the flesh just two days before the murder, and a down on her luck, schizophrenic old lover. 

I struggled with sympathy as Bannagan’s life went into financial, emotional, and public freefall.  No innocent deserves fearful and bewildering segregation due to trial-by-newspaper but I was alienated by Bannagan’s mental thread.  His view on women and wealth, “They only wanted to play when it was all in their favor… as long as he was spending money on them…It was good that his mother was different.“ pp 69, his place in society,  “The strip-search, as if he was a common criminal or a drug dealer!” pp ii, and marriage, “They all hated giving up the wealth, the prestige and the power that they got from being his wife.” pp 246, did not endear him to me as anyone I would like to personally know. But even a shallow, egotistical, vain, womanizing bastard deserves a fair trial. Luckily, Bannagan had his long time attorney and a very expensive detective agency in his corner. 

And the end, well, that was a huge surprise.  I’m not a huge mystery reader, so for me, who killed who and why wasn’t clear until the very last pages.  And at that point the implications were such I thought about rereading the book so I could find the clues!
 
Personally, I would recommend this book to noir fans, and mystery fans in general.  Anyone in a “he pays, she spends” relationship should avoid this book unless they want a look at a worse case scenario, or a really bad idea on how to get out of the relationship.  All in all, a good read. The kicker is the dedication.  Makes me wonder….

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