The Blind Devotion of Imogene

 

The Blind Devotion of Imogene, subtitled The Misadventures of Imogene Taylor by David Putnam is my second Putnam novel and the fourth reviewed in this blog. We have liked them all. This book is particularly intriguing, and I cannot remember any prior crime novel in which I so enjoyed the conversation among characters, and sometimes when the characters talked to themselves. While it’s a crime novel, it is a departure from Putnam’s stories about Bruno Johnson.

 

This book’s protagonist, Imogene Taylor, was somebody I cared about from the outset. A 75-year-old woman who has been released from jail on parole to a sadistic parole officer who has predicted Imogene will never survive on the outside of jail, will violate her parole, and will be reincarcerated. After 10 years in jail for murder, Imogene was determined to stay free of jail, and one condition of her parole was to keep a job. She becomes a cashier at a variety store (think K-Mart) that serves the desperately poor. There’s conflict with the store owner and other employees. Meanwhile, she does a good job watching the store and then going home at night and getting soundly drunk in an attempt to forget when she pulled the trigger of a gun that killed the love her life, Wayne. She never denied pulling the trigger, but she made a mistake which she thought should have qualified her for a manslaughter charge, not a murder charge.

 

In addition to wonderful dialogue, the plot was fantastic. There were unexpected surprises throughout. I recommend this novel highly – you won’t be disappointed. Now, I’m ready for more of Putnam’s work.