'The Gatsby Gambit' review: Mystery with Gatsby's sis is great

This month marks the 100th birthday of the ultimate Long Island classic, "The Great Gatsby," and Claire Anderson-Wheeler has given its fans a delightful way to celebrate with her debut novel, "The Gatsby Gambit." The book is a Golden Age-style detective story that uses F. Scott Fitzgerald’s settings and characters to create not a prequel or a sequel but a whole new plot.

For her detective, Anderson-Wheeler has added a new character to the familiar cast: Greta Gatsby, Jay’s seven-years-younger sister, also his ward since their parents’ early death. “Jay had sent her off to a fancy boarding school stocked with Mayflower types, and then to an even fancier ‘finishing school’ for a couple of years. Jay wasn’t a snob, but he detested being looked down on, and was determined that Greta would escape the stain of New Money.”

As the novel opens, Greta has finished her education and is returning to West Egg, excited to finally be coming home to stay.

Jay may not be a snob but he is obsessed with his social status, and he’s still joined at the hip to the mega-rich couple Tom and Daisy Buchanan, whom Greta really doesn’t have much use for. Too bad, because they are staying at Jay’s for an indefinite period “while their own stately pile, in the tonier locale of East Egg, underwent some repairs.” Greta is a more egalitarian sort than her brother, and enjoys being friends with the “downstairs” household staff more than she cares for the Buchanans, or that other member of their retinue, louche golfer Jordan Baker. The only one of the crowd she likes is Nick Carraway, the nice Midwestern guy who was the first-person narrator of Fitzgerald’s original. In fact, Greta likes Nick kind of a lot … but what with glamourpusses like Daisy and Jordan sucking up all the attention, and her being just 21, Greta’s not brave enough to do much about it.

Not only does she have the disappointment of Jay’s shallow, hard-partying friends being in residence, but Greta also learns that Flora, a maid she’d grown close to, and Silas, the chauffeur, have both been dismissed under mysterious circumstances. Flora’s replacement is stiff, unfriendly Molly. Greta is determined to find out what happened, but before she is able to start solving that puzzle, there’s a stranger lurking on the grounds, and shortly after that comes the big Kahuna of irresistible mysteries — one of the inner circle is found on Jay’s boat dead with a bullet to the head.

Greta goes full-on Nancy Drew, dismissing various red herrings and putting together the pieces way ahead of both local law enforcement and her stressed-out, generally useless housemates. “Well, I don’t know about the rest of you,” says Jordan Baker at a key moment. “But I, for one, could really use a drink.”

Anderson-Wheeler give her young protagonist a burgeoning feminist sensibility: Greta wears her hair bobbed, owns a pair of trousers, and is painfully aware of the limitations placed on women’s behavior and choices. She would have loved to go to a real university and study science, but instead was taught to paint watercolors and recite poetry. She knows that “women like her were supposed to love matchmaking and gossip and weddings” — despite the fact that she’s surrounded by unhappy marriages and cheating partners. She’s appalled to learn that Daisy Buchanan’s greatest hope for her own daughter is that she grows up to be “a pretty little fool,” since “men will tolerate clever women only if they’re plain.” She also can’t stand how the servants are treated — or mistreated — at the whim of their lords and masters.

Anderson-Wheeler has explained that part of what drew her to "The Great Gatsby" is its “deep critique of a culture that insulates and romanticizes the elitism and social disconnect we see among Gatsby’s cohort.” She’s certainly echoed and expanded that aspect of the novel — by the epilogue, Greta seems to be turning into a 1920s-edition social justice warrior — but at the same time, she’s neatly managed to create a diverting entertainment for readers of all ages.