Like many first novelists Heidi Julavits attempts to pack a big punch in her debut, The Mineral Palace. The plot revolves round the fate of Bena Jonsson, a young mother who moves with her doctor-husband and infant son in 1934 to the depression hell-hole of Pueblo, Colorado, to begin what the couple hope will be a new life. But the signs are ominous. En route from Minnesota, Bena encounters Bonnie, the famous lover of gangster Clyde, who presses a medallion into the young mother"s hand. There is little room for optimism when the couple reaches Pueblo, which seems full of corrupt townspeople hiding many secrets and indulging in much bad behaviour. Unfortunately, there is simply far too much happening in this novel and what might have been a compelling tale spills over into melodrama. Bena befriends a cowboy named Red who is, in turn, involved with Maude, a pregnant prostitute who was also his childhood friend. He supplies Maude with laudanum and sympathy but cannot prevent her from perpetuating terrible, violent retribution against the townspeople who have abused and ridiculed her. Unfortunately Maude"s character is so incredible and her crime painted in such garish strokes that it taints some of Julavits" stronger and more sympathetic characters. It is also hard to take Julavits" portrait of Pueblo in the 1930s as an accurate historical backdrop as the character"s behaviour seems suspiciously contemporary. Bena, with her baby son only weeks old, heads off to become a journalist on the local newspaper with her breast pump in her bag and the blessing of her husband. By the novel"s end, there seems to be corpses littered everywhere as the seemingly innocent Bena and her husband, begin their own cycle of hiding horrors in their freshly constructed closet. Despite a few lovely touches, this is a debut that suffers from an overly ambitious plot and far too much gratuitous blood. --Julie Wheelwright