Lake County: The Marilyn Mystique

What happens when a well-known persona steps into a murder mystery narrative? This literary device is used quite effectively by S. J Bennett in her mystery series (The Windsor Knot, All the Queen's Men, and Murder Most Royal), with Queen Elizabeth II solving murders. Even for those readers who don't follow the British royals religiously, there is an implicit "understanding" of who the queen is and the inherent restrictions that come with the longstanding traditions of the British royal family, which make for exciting between-the-lines interpretations of narrative plot and characterization. We find a variant of introducing a well-known fictional persona in the books of Laurie King, who imagines a "married" Sherlock Holmes and centers her series around his protégé and, ultimately, wife Mary Russell. The books take on a richness of their own precisely because of our notion of who Sherlock is and turn it on its head by providing a female foil intriguingly antithetical to Dr. Watson. These interesting literary twists of character development based on real-life celebrities only work if the person in question is "well known," as it allows for unique plays on the reader's varied preconceptions of who the person, on which the character is based, is.  Lori Roy successfully employs this device by introducing, perhaps, one of the most highly recognized, mythologized, and misunderstood cultural icons of the 20th century, Marilyn Monroe, as one of her mystery novel's characters. 

Lori Roy takes fictional liberties in Lake County, scheduled for release on June 1, 2024, when crafting the Aunt Jean character harkening to pre-fame Marilyn Norma Jeane Mortenson. The author writes: "In creating MM's character, I worked to capture her many facets that were so well documented–she could be insecure, vain, and manipulative, but she could also be sweet, brave, and strong." Her brushstroke approach when creating her character is effective as it allows for multiple interpretations and contextualization. 

The reader is continuously asked to reimagine and question their idea of Marilyn Monroe. The mystique of Marilyn Monroe is indeed challenging to capture. Its slipperiness is partly due to the numerous mysteries and tragedies surrounding her life and the many portrayals of her persona, both written and visual. According to many of her biographers, Marilyn had an active hand in fabricating and promulgating her origin story, which centered around a childhood shuffled between many foster care homes.  Even if the details may vary, there is a sense of a troubled and lonely childhood and, as a result, a deep yearning for love and acceptance. 

Marilyn Monroe filled a void in the post-WWII, both representing and commodifying femininity and female sexuality. Her role as a sex symbol in the sexually verklempt era of the 1950s is distilled in the ubiquitous iconic image of her white dress blowing up over the subway grate on Lexington Avenue, where it meets 52nd Street. Originally intended as a publicity stunt for Billy Wilder's The Seven Year Itch, the shoot's location can be found on Tripadvisor, drawing curious attention seven decades later. Along the same vein, take the breathless rendition of Happy Birthday, Mr. President, in which Marilyn toasts John F. Kennedy, which has had 1.3 million downloads on YouTube in the last year alone. Her relationships with influential men cemented the enduring fascination with Marilyn, the documented ones with her husbands, baseball legend Joe Di Maggio and famed playwright Arthur Miller, and lover French actor Yves Montand. The ones that had the rumor mill spinning were those intimated affairs with the Kennedy brothers, both Robert and John F and Frank Sinatra, all of which resulted in many conspiracy theories. Marilyn's unsubstantiated association with the mob, mainly via her known connection with the Rat Pack, takes on its significance in Lake County, which centers on mob activities in the Tampa area.    

Readers' familiarity with Monroe's biography and body of work will vary wildly, yet because Marilyn has become such a famous icon, there is just enough information and misinformation to build on. There are her film roles: the quintessential Monroe vehicles like How to Marry a Millionaire and Gentleman Prefer Blondes, which secured her sexpot image;  Some Like it Hot, a perennial favorite in which she holds her own in an ensemble cast; Niagara, the colored noir that makes excellent use of its environs, including Marilyn as the femme fatal; The Misfits the Oater, penned by her playwright husband, was doomed to fail at the box office and yet perhaps because of its role as Marilyn's and Clark Gable's swan song, strangely mesmerizing. The numerous portrayals of Marilyn Monroe on screen provide another point of reference. Mira Sorvino, Michelle Williams, Ashley Judd, Catherine Hicks, and Ana de Armas, to name just a few, each portrays different facets of Marilyn's iconography. These multifaceted performances accentuate the Marilyn Monroe mosaic, which strangely reflects the silk screen effect of Andy Warhol's Marilyn portraiture.

Lori Roy speaks to the allure of the star potential of Marilyn.  Addie's father remarks to his daughter as she leaves her home to pursue her dreams: 

 You'll see a lot of shine when you go off with your aunt Jean. (..) Shine like none of us can even imagine. Promise me this: You have just one life to lead. Before you make any decisions, buff off the shine and take note of what's hiding underneath.

This fatherly advice crystallizes one of this novel's throughlines: Things may not always be as they seem. This common theme of essentially all mysteries is cast in a new light given what we, as readers, know and don't know about Marilyn Monroe. Is Aunt Jean a role model worthy of imitation or not? What are the costs of leaving the staid familiarity of suburbia for purportedly greener and yet unknown pastures of New York or Hollywood? Is fame and stardom everything it is cut out to be? Can Aunt Jean be trusted?

In Lake County, the author takes fictional liberties with the Marilyn biography with a surprising twist that only works because we are all aware of the Marilyn story, specifically her demise. The author plays with readers' expectations by choosing to present Aunt Jean, the character based on Marilyn Monroe, as a starting point and changing her biographical trajectory slightly while never straying too far from the reference point.

Lake County is compelling not just because of its acute sense of time and place. It subtly questions the dichotomies between actual and imagined, fact and fiction, preconceptions and myths. Fans like to claim their idols as their own, and fiction readers relate to narratives from their subjective perspectives. So, everyone will relate to this meta-discussion in Lori Roy's novel in their own way. Mysteries, perhaps more so than other narrative genres, are not just defined by their story world; readers are looking for that "hidden story" within, as David Bordwell describes so aptly in his Perplexing Plots.  In Lake County, this mystery within a mystery, the "hidden story," largely relies on Aunt Jean's character. The Marilyn mystique imbues the narrative with a sheen that sets this novel apart. 

Thanks to MB Communications for generously providing an advance copy of Lake County.