Estate approved sequel to the novel To Catch a Thief by David Dodge and 1955 Academy Award-winning film by Alfred Hitchcock
It’s been a year since John Robie, notorious Riviera jewel thief, proved his innocence by catching a copycat burglar. And it’s been a year since John has seen Francie Stevens, the adventurous socialite who not only saw through his disguise, but helped him catch the copycat. Now Francie is returning to the Riviera for its first-ever Fashion Week as a model for a top French designer, and John plans on rekindling their romance. But there’s a problem. While helping a friend, John chases down a mysterious courier, whose ruthless associates now want John dead. To make matters worse, when Francie arrives, she has a boyfriend in tow, and tells John that she wants nothing to do with him.
John has to figure out why he’s a hunted man, and why Francie is acting suspiciously. Digging deeper, he discovers a spy ring with evil intent. As John works unofficially to gather evidence, a question begins to haunt him―could Francie Stevens be a spy? With his enemies closing in, John turns to his cat burglar skills to try to save his life and expose the traitors. To survive, he has to catch the spies before they catch―and kill―a retired thief!
His Review:
John Robie is a very accomplished individual. He has trained as an acrobat in the circus and has maintained his climbing abilities throughout his life. He is an ex-patriot living on the French Riviera and has honed his craft as a jewel thief. He frequents the posh hotels and other places where the rich and famous go to play.
Francie Stevens is a young lady learning the modeling trade. She is very lovely and picks up the business fairly well. Some of the designers decide to use her in the upcoming fashion shows and she is quickly becoming famous. Many designers wish to engage her to promote their designs. She is new to the business and eager to please.
Francie has an off/again, on/again affair with John, and although they seem to hit it off, they soon part ways. She is lured by wealthy designers who want her to help with their clandestine activities. She does not know she is being used, but many of the designers are engaged in many nefarious activities. Francie is unknowingly drawn into this world and she is dragged into the world of espionage.
This story is well written and follows the format of a story written nearly a century earlier. The plot has many twists and will keep any reader glued to the outcome. The characters are particularly well developed. The French Resistance during WWII honed the skills of many of the participants. Enjoy! 4.5 stars – CE Williams
I read To Catch a Thief by David Dodge in January. While this author has been given approval to write this sequel by his estate and did an admiral job, there was a certain writing style to the original by David Dodge that I just didn’t quite find in this novel. The book will catch and hold your interest and attention but if you’ve read the original concept, (especially recently) might note a perceptible difference.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book. Any opinion expressed here is my own.
Catherine Devine briefly becomes a minor celebrity in Fauquier County, Virginia, when she saves a child from an oncoming truck. Cate is an unlikely heroine, stuck in a dead-end job as a school crossing guard and part-time art teacher. Stalled in her early forties, she lacks sufficient faith in herself to craft any plans—grand or small. But Cate harbors an extraordinary secret—she occasionally experiences psychokinesis. As she ponders just how she stopped that truck, she comes to believe her mind can move more than just physical objects. Perhaps she can move time itself. Melanie Forde’s riveting sixth novel takes readers on a journey of discovery as Cate explores not only her paranormal quirks but artistic talents that can heal old wounds. Accompanying her on this journey is her faithful wolfhound, Hecuba, an old soul who has always considered her mistress someone very, very special—perhaps even a goddess.
My Review:
This is not an author who churns out one series installment every six months. Ms. Forde takes her time to deliver a complex plot line and crafts a spellbinding literary novel.
Thoughtful storylines may take a bit longer to build but are rewarded by deeply moving and thoughtful characters wrestling with life and circumstances the best they can with the gifts they were born with. Such is the story of Catherine Devine of Fauquier County, Virginia.
The author generates a raw and emotional main character in Catherine who, following the extraordinary save of a young girl from being killed by a run-a-way vehicle in her school crosswalk, begins to question her ability to have moved that fast and effectively. As Cate begins to reflect on obscure memories in her life, she instigates a plan to solve what might be an act of psychokinesis.
Essentially without family, Cate does have a few friends but she begins an earnest investigation into her abilities and consults a professional. Single, her closest ally is a giant wolfhound named Hecuba. I loved this character! I could picture and invest in her.
In the study of her background, Cate comes across her old paintings, something she’d loved years ago and was very good at.
There is one very dark, ugly, but powerful painting she comes across that stirs strong emotions and she realizes that is the direction she must follow. She also remembers the catharsis her artistic abilities brought her and dives back into it with abandon, wondering what secrets she has long repressed will be revealed.
Yikes! The storyline turns dark, a startling surprise for me. Definitely caught off-guard, the plot becomes so compelling, you’ll have to follow to the denouement.
“The law of unintended consequences.”
It’s an intelligent and sensitive writing style that pulls in the reader. The themes examine the loss of familial trust, sexual deviation, paranormal and kinesis abilities, along with Greek mythology.
“…physical abuse breaks bones. Sexual abuse breaks the spirit.”
The author is a powerful storyteller. This is one of those stories that is laid out carefully, quietly, and then bestows a “wow” mystical factor at the end when the readers’ mind catches up. Whether or not you believe in paranormal or psychokinesis abilities, the narrative will leave you satisfied.
I greatly enjoyed The Quarry’s Girl, my last read by this author. Each of her novels is totally unique. I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author and publisher through NetGalley that in no way influenced this review. While there were some edit misses, they will be corrected. These thoughts and opinions are my own.
Rosepoint Rating: Four point Five Stars
Book Details:
Genre: Literature & Fiction Publisher: D Street Books, a division of Mountain Lake Press ISBN: 1959307436 ASIN: B0DSQ98DL1 Print Length: 471 pages Publication Date: January 9, 2025 Source: Publisher and NetGalley
The Author: For most of her writing career, Melanie Forde ghosted on international security issues. She published her first novel, Hillwilla, in 2014, followed by On the Hillwilla Road in 2015. Her West Virginia trilogy culminates in Reinventing Hillwilla, 2018. Twenty years in the making, her Irish-American family saga, Decanted Truths, was also released in 2018. In 2022, Forde mined the stories about her French Canadian ancestors, to publish another period novel and family saga, The Quarryman’s Girl. Legends about the goddess Hecate were the starting point for her sixth novel. Published in 2024, Guardian of the Crossroads combines paranormal, psychological and literary themes.
Fifteen-year-old foster child Josh Redford’s only friend in the world was an old Algonquin trapper who taught him the secrets of the wilderness. When the trapper dies, Josh runs away to a remote area of the rugged Laurentian Mountains, where he soon discovers that the trapper’s tales of animal spirits are true, and that not all of them are friendly. Caught in an ancient war between good and evil, Josh’s escape from grief quickly becomes a harrowing struggle to survive. Desperate and alone, he soon discovers the one secret the trapper never revealed.
Valley of the Wolves is a four-book series full of action and adventure that is rooted in Algonquin mythology. It is also the story of how colonialism nearly destroyed a beautiful people and their culture.
His Review:
Moving from group home to foster home wore heavily on Josh. His heart yearned to be free and away from adult guidance. Certainly, many of the homes were nice but they were not his family and he never seemed to fit in. He longed to be free and disappear in the Laurentian mountains of his ancestors. His only true friend is a dying Algonquin who is teaching him the old ways.
He is very proficient with a canoe and escapes on a foggy night and heads downstream. He will cross into Canada and leave the Foster Child Systems behind. His Indian name is Crazy Otter given to him by Stumbling Moose who tries to teach him the old ways. He knows that the officials will be looking for him and will put him in a juvenile detention facility until he is of age if he is caught. He stays in the darkest parts of the forest and continues northeast towards Canada.
As a child, I often thought of running away and making my own way heading north to Canada. Josh is much smarter because he read all of the books he could find on wilderness survival and how to exist in the wild. Building traps and foraging for edible foods and tubers, he could teach military survival. The further he melts into the wild, however, the more he becomes the hunted instead of the hunter. This is a great book for young scouts and others to read. 4.5 stars – CE Williams
The first book in a new series that launches an enterprising and magnetic main character and is a great start to the series. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book. Any opinion expressed here is my own.
Rosepoint Publishing:Four point Five Stars
Book Details:
Genre: Teen & Young Adult Historical Fantasy eBooks, Teen & Young Adult Coming of Age Fiction eBooks ASIN: B0DLGM9F21 Print Length: 179 pages Publication Date: November 19, 2024 Source: Author and NetGalley Title Link(s): Valley of the Wolves – Amazon-US Valley of the Wolves– Amazon-UK
The Author:Brock Farrow is an avid outdoorsman and survivalist with a deep love for the Laurentian Mountains. He holds a profound respect for Canada’s Indigenous peoples, especially the original inhabitants of the Laurentians—the Algonquin Nation. He believes that they have much to teach us about our relationship with the planet and each other. The Valley of the Wolves series is his first attempt to share his knowledge and admiration with others.
“Giving to charity swells your heart with pride and joy; receiving charity crushes your soul with shame and embarrassment.”
When I got the invitation from Amy Jackson at Random House Publishing through NetGalley regarding this book and read the blurb, I thought this sounded too good to keep to myself and in turn invited the CE to read it as well. (Also, that book cover is pretty eye-catching!) Of course, I was in the middle of another book and he’d just finished his, so he jumped into this one and stayed. There were a number of LOLs and we did a buddy read. No doubt you can guess his thoughts on the novel—see below.
Book Blurb:
Award-winning comedian Zarna Garg turns her astonishing life story into a hilarious memoir, spilling all the chai on her wild ride from escaping an arranged marriage and homelessness in India to carving her own path in America and launching a dazzling second act in midlife.
Throughout Zarna’s whole childhood in India, everyone called her “so American” just for reading the newspaper, having deep thoughts, and talking back to anyone over the age of thirty. When Zarna’s dad tried to marry her off at age fourteen, Zarna fled—first to the streets of Mumbai and ultimately to the glittering paradise of Akron, Ohio, where she got to become American for real.
On Zarna’s very American quest to find herself and her calling, she threw herself wholeheartedly into roles like dog-bite lawyer, crazy perfectionist stay-at-home mom, Indian matchmaker, prizewinning screenwriter, and more. It wasn’t until a dare led her to a stand-up comedy open mic that Zarna finally found her spiritual home: getting paid cold hard cash for her big fat mouth.
And as Zarna discovered, after surviving the brutal streets of Mumbai, the cutthroat world of stand-up comedy is nothing.
This American Woman is an exuberant story of fighting for your right to determine your own destiny and triumphing beyond what you ever dreamed was possible. Zarna’s mantra becomes a call to action: It’s never too late. If Zarna can do it, you can, too.
My Review:
Absolutely no doubt this woman has a wild and wicked, often profane sense of humor. Given her history, it may be the only thing keeping her sane as she grappled with an insane drive she could not fulfill. That and the most loving and supportive brother she could have prayed for.
I loved the story of her early childhood, her place in the fairly well-to-do family, and the description of life as a privileged youngster up until the day her birth mother died.
“When you lose a parent, you lose your childhood.”
When her dad married again, rather quickly, he wanted his freedom. Zarna was shocked to discover just how serious he was. (Well, it’s interesting to see men really aren’t very different from country to country.)
At fourteen, and with all the guile of a young teen, she knew marriage to someone, kids, the end of an education, and a life of servitude was not what she had in mind. So split she did. Of course, that didn’t turn out as she’d expected. Returning home, her father began the process of finding her a husband, even going through the process of meeting the groom and his family. Marriage plans were being made, a wedding that would last for days.
When she was finally granted the Visa and quietly worked out the airfare to America to join her sister and her American husband, she fled. It wasn’t easy, but amazing how hard she worked at everything, tried everything, including her newly discovered stand-up ability. None of this happened overnight or easily.
Yes, she does find a husband and they have three children. Throughout the story, there are observations relayed by her keen sense of humor and delivered with a quick wit and sharp mouth.
“My family is Gujarati, observant vegetarians, while Shalabh’s family is from Uttar Pradesh, the Alabama of India.”
“Any woman anywhere can wear the bindi. But married women tend to wear it more because when they wake up the day after the marriage they should know where to aim the gun.”
The story is engaging, hard to put down, filled with anecdotes from funny to hilarious. Comments about life in India, comments about life in America, comparisons of the two, along with some hardcore facts. Yes, there are more than a few barbs, bound to be, I suppose. But let’s face it, she is one in a billion.
India population as of January 2024 is estimated at 1.44 billion. (AI overview) (Population density approx. 488 people per square kilometer.)
USA population as of July 1, 2024 – 340,110.988. (AI overview)(Population density in 2022 approx. 36.43 people per square kilometer.)
This book releases the end of April. Needing a little comedy? This one will brighten your day and leave you with a smile on your face.
Rosepoint Rating: Four point Five Stars
His Review:
A domineering father who has decided that at age 14, Zarna should be married and launches on the quest to find her a husband. Zarna decides there is no way she will marry against her will and leaves her well-to-do home. Zarna begins by trying to stay with her many friends from school.
The problem is that she finds out that her welcome is overstayed very quickly and she is out on the streets again. There she learns what life is like for the many destitute people in India. The streets of Mumbai teach her many ways to get by but without money, she is trapped in poverty.
One of her best traits and biggest downfalls is her smart mouth. She refuses to cave to the continued attempted control of her father. Finally, she must return home or possibly die on the streets. Her father never capitulates and the end result is two hard heads unwilling to yield. She goes back with her tail between her legs and submits to husband interviews. Starving is simply not an option.
She has a married sister in America willing to sponsor her and help get her a Visa. Fortunately, this finally comes through just in time and she flees to the states.
She perfects her sense of humor and sets out to be a comic at local venues. At first, she begs to have people come to see her show. Many nights the theater is empty. If there are only a few persons in her audience, she goes through her act. Soon people begin to talk about this funny comedian from the streets and theaters begin to fill. She continues to write her dialogues spending many hours per day perfecting her act between shows. This book has many good belly laughs as you read about her trials and tribulations. Enjoy! 5 stars – CE Williams
Rosepoint Rating: Five Stars
Book Details:
Genre: Biographies of Comedians, Biographies & Memoirs of Women, Humor Publisher: Ballantine Books ISBN-10: 0593975022 ISBN-13: 978-0593975022 ASIN: B0DM6Z1SYQ Print Length: 320 pages Publication Date: April 29, 2025 Source: Publisher and NetGalley
The Author:Zarna Garg is a force of nature with a mic. America’s first Indian immigrant mom comedian burst onto the scene in 2023 with her first special, ‘One in a Billion’. Her follow-up special,’Practical People Win’, hits Hulu in 2025. Zarna cut her teeth opening for icons Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Her acting debut in the indie hit ‘A Nice Indian Boy’ earned rave reviews, while her hugely popular ‘Zarna Garg Family Podcast’ explores modern family life with her husband and kids. With millions of social media followers and billions of views, Zarna just can’t stop laughing her way to the top.
With the haunting, moody prose of Tana French and the compulsive storytelling of Dervla McTiernan or Ann Cleeves, bestselling author Carlene O’Connor lures readers to a remote village on Ireland’s southwest coast, where winding windswept roads open to spectacular views of rugged cliffs against immense, lonely beaches . . . and some fear a mysterious cult could be connected to the disappearance of a young pregnant woman.
After two pregnant women in Dingle who have never met each receive a chilling email warning them that they’re in grave danger, the two decide to meet each other to figure out what is going on. But when one of the mothers, Shauna, a deaf woman, arrives at their meeting place at the village Spring Festival, she fears a trap and hurries off to meet the couple who plan to adopt her baby.
Meanwhile, Dimpna Wilde has her hands full with lambing season and keeping track of her father, so she’s grateful for the help of a well-meaning ten-year-old boy, Dylan, at the veterinary clinic. But when the lad goes missing after going into a bog on a dare with two other boys to search for a “monster,” she is desperate to help find him.
After the adoptive couple are discovered tied up in their home, telling a terrifying story of a deaf pregnant woman being abducted by a man wearing a butterfly mask, Detective Inspector Cormac O’Brien and Detective Sergeant Barbara Neely fear a repeat of a disturbing case from twenty years earlier, when a charismatic leader calling himself the Shepherd, lured poor pregnant girls into his enigmatic cult. Though allegations of baby smuggling were never proven, he’d been put away on other charges. But then they learn that the Shepherd has recently been released from prison.
Trapped in a cold, dark room with a frightened boy, Shauna fears for their lives as well as that of her unborn baby. If she has any chance of getting out and away from the Moth Man, as she calls her abductor, she’ll have to figure out the truth behind who she really is and how that connects to the ordeal she finds herself in now. But time is running out and her baby will be born soon . . .
My Review:
I’ve enjoyed the author’s cozy mystery series for some time, read most of them and then started this series. Book 3 is also my third and I’ve found each a bit darker.
Although Book 2 Some of Us Are Looking, began bordering on noir this one turned even darker from thriller to horror and I found some descriptions just too graphic for me.
Dimpna Wilde is a vet in a remote rural village on Ireland’s coast. Her practice has led her to confront the death of more than animals. In this installment, the gruesome body of a pregnant woman and her baby has been found. At the same time, a young boy and a pregnant teenage girl go missing.
Dimpna is again partnered with Detective Inspector Cormac O’Brien and Detective Sergeant Barbara Neely to help find the missing children as well as determine who and why the young woman was killed and her body dumped. Is an old cult resurfacing?
We’ve come up on the partnership of Dimpna and DI O’Brien before and rooted in the background for them to possibly light the spark that undeniably appears between them.
I’m not sure what really happened to this storyline though. It felt like it made a left turn somewhere in the plot and created a rather disjointed feel to the novel. I liked the POV from the teenage girl (who is also deaf!). Support characters are not developed—left more as dark shadows in the scene. I thought I detected a couple of small contradictions which left me a bit confused and as the narrative raced to the denouement, became ever more complex and confounding. I’m not sure—did that whole confusing explanation in conclusion make sense to you?
There is not enough of E.T., her sheepdog, Pickles, her border collie, and Guinness, her English bulldog in this one. I was enjoying the series even as it turned darker, but this one had me wondering what happened to the author with the sweet cozies and who is this one?
The setting is atmospheric, Dimpna is an interesting main character, and it appears she and Cormac may get cozy. If you enjoy stories written about Ireland or mysteries set in a unique village with a smart and unusual MC with a dark storyline chalked full of twists you can’t predict, you’ll enjoy. But be aware, this one gets graphic.
I received a copy of this book from my library that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts.
The Author: USA Today bestselling author Carlene O’Connor comes from a long line of Irish storytellers. Her great-grandmother emigrated from Ireland to America and the stories have been flowing ever since. Of all the places across the pond she’s wandered, she fell most in love with a walled town in County Limerick and was inspired to create the town of Kilbane, County Cork. She writes the bestselling IRISH VILLAGE MYSTERIES, the HOME TO IRELAND series, and the new COUNTY KERRY MYSTERIES. Her books have been translated into numerous languages, and optioned for television. Readers can find her at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086525205106 or through her website: http://www.carleneoconnor.net
An Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestselling series.
A killer fueled by revenge. A detective haunted by the past. They are headed for a high-stakes showdown in this bone-chilling new Tracy Crosswhite novel by New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni.
Detective Tracy Crosswhite isn’t one to lose her cool. Until her interrogation of the taunting and malicious Erik Schmidt, a suspect in two cold case killings. Schmidt also has unnerving ties to the monster who murdered Tracy’s sister, stirring memories of the crime that shaped Tracy’s life. After a critical mistake during a shooting exercise, Tracy breaks.
Haunted by nightmares and flashbacks, Tracy heads to her hometown of Cedar Grove to refocus. Just a peaceful getaway with her husband, her daughter, and their nanny at their weekend house. But Tracy’s sleepless nights are only beginning. A legal glitch has allowed Schmidt to go free. And Tracy has every reason to fear that he’s followed her.
Forced into a twisted game of cat and mouse, Tracy must draw on all her training, wits, and strength to defeat a master criminal before he takes away everyone Tracy loves.
His Review:
A detective can never be certain that someone he/she tracks down and arrests will not seek revenge. This is the umbrella that Tracy Crosswhite lives under every day. She had been relentless in hunting for her sister’s killer and making sure that he would spend the rest of his life in prison.
A really good defense attorney will work to free his/her clients no matter what egregious crimes they have committed. Erick Schmidt had killed her sister as well as a number of young women. The killings were cruel and messy and he made sure that they suffered the maximum amount before they expired. Meanwhile, he languished in jail as appeal after appeal was filed on his behalf. The process is exacerbated by a judge who feels that every convict is harassed by the officers who hope to get them off the streets and put away.
Tracy’s twin sister had been one of Erik’s playthings. Her body was mutilated and buried in a shallow grave. He had hoped to put Tracy in a similar grave but was caught instead. This story exemplifies the problems faced by the police and the judicial system and the horrors that result. 4.5 stars – CE Williams
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book. Any opinion expressed here is my own.
[The author is nothing if not prolific. Together we’ve read five of his novels since 2022 and probably missed a few including Book 10 of the Tracy White series. The last few were intros to new series or standalones such as my last two reads, The Cyanide Canary in June last year, and Beyond Reasonable Doubt in July. Regardless the genre, series, or standalone, you can always count on his books to deliver. VW]
Rosepoint Publishing:Four point Five Stars
Book Details:
Genre: Police Procedurals, Women Sleuths Publisher: Thomas & Mercer ASIN: B0D7NPY2ST Print Length: 395 pages Publication Date: May 27, 2025 Source: Publisher and NetGalley
The Author:Robert Dugoni is the critically acclaimed New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and #1 Amazon bestselling author of the Tracy Crosswhite police series set in Seattle, which has sold more than 10 million books worldwide. He is also the author of The Charles Jenkins espionage series, the David Sloane legal thriller series, the Keera Duggan legal thriller series, and several stand-alone novels including the literary novel, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell – One of Newsweek Magazines Best Books of All Time and Suspense Magazine’s Book of the Year. Dugoni’s narration won an AudioFile Earphones Award. He has also written critically acclaimed historical novels based on true events: The World Played Chess a coming of age story and the Vietnam War; Hold Strong an untold story of WWII; and A Killing on the Hill, about a 1933 killing and trial in Seattle. HIs nonfiction exposé The Cyanide Canary, was a Washington Post Best Book of the Year. His novels have been optioned for movies and television series. Dugoni is the recipient of the Nancy Pearl Award for Fiction and multiple awards for best novel set in the Pacific Northwest. He has also been a finalist for many other awards including the International Thriller Award, the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, the Silver Falchion Award for mystery, and the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award.
Robert Dugoni’s books are sold in more than forty countries and have been translated into more than thirty languages.
Visit his website and follow him on Amazon, Goodreads, twitter, Facebook, Tik Tok and other social media sites.
The first entry in the acclaimed Ruth Galloway series follows the “captivating”* archaeologist as she investigates a child’s bones found on a nearby beach, thought to be the remains of a little girl who went missing ten years before.
Forensic archeologist Dr. Ruth Galloway is in her late thirties. She lives happily alone with her two cats in a bleak, remote area near Norfolk, land that was sacred to its Iron Age inhabitants—not quite earth, not quite sea. But her routine days of digging up bones and other ancient objects are harshly upended when a child’s bones are found on a desolate beach. Detective Chief Inspector Nelson calls Galloway for help, believing they are the remains of Lucy Downey, a little girl who went missing a decade ago and whose abductor continues to taunt him with bizarre letters containing references to ritual sacrifice, Shakespeare, and the Bible. Then a second girl goes missing and Nelson receives a new letter—exactly like the ones about Lucy.
Is it the same killer? Or a copycat murderer, linked in some way to the site near Ruth’s remote home?
My Review:
Dr. Ruth Galloway is a forensic archeologist at the University of North Norfolk. Don’t ask me why, but I liked this protagonist almost immediately. She is in her late thirties, lives with her two cats on an ancient spit of land between sea and land on the Saltmarsh coast. She is very isolated and seems to love it, despite the almost daily miserable gray and stormy conditions battering her small cottage.
When she is asked to accompany DCI Nelson to a desolate area near the area where bones are found, he is hoping she can identify a missing child in his caseload. He is enormously magnetic and catches Ruth’s eye, but she can discern immediately that the bones are probably Iron Age. Still, there is another missing child and he’s back.
Ruth is an interesting MC, easy to invest in, and will no doubt be more deeply developed in succeeding installments. The support characters are developed only as far as need be, but the overwhelming star of the show is the area. The writing chills, planting horrendous scenic storms in the mind’s eye. The area is desolate, wet, cold, foreboding.
I loved the detailed description of the Saltmarsh, the Henge Circle, the old legends and ancient myths. Lots to learn, love that history.
“Herbs picked on St John’s Eve have special healing powers.”
“The past is dead. She, as an archaeologist, knows that better than most. But she knows too that it can be seductive.”
It’s dark, creepy, and the writer takes her time with divulging little nuances, secrets, clues. I suspected the ultimate perp, was right, but wanted to see how it all played out. Yeah, I’m hooked and apparently this series went on audiobooks, so I’ll be looking for those next.
I received a copy of this book from my library that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts.
Rosepoint Rating: Four Stars
Book Details:
Genre: Traditional Detective Mysteries, Amateur Sleuth Mysteries, Amateur Sleuths Publisher: Mariner Books: First Edition ASIN: B003UV90G6 Print Length: 306 pages Publication Date: January 5, 2010 Source: Library
The Author: Thank you for visiting my Amazon author page! I’m the author of two crime series, the Dr Ruth Galloway books and the Brighton Mysteries. Last year I also published a stand-alone, The Stranger Diaries, and a children’s book, A Girl Called Justice. I have previously written books under my real name, Domenica de Rosa (I know it sounds made up).
The Ruth books are set in Norfolk, a place I know well from childhood. It was a chance remark of my husband’s that gave me the idea for the first in the series, The Crossing Places. We were crossing Titchwell Marsh in North Norfolk when Andy (an archaeologist) mentioned that prehistoric people thought that marshland was sacred ground. Because it’s neither land nor sea, but something in-between, they saw it as a bridge to the afterlife; neither land nor sea, neither life nor death. In that moment, I saw Dr Ruth Galloway walking towards me out of the mist…
I live near Brighton with Andy. We have two grown-up children. I write in a garden shed accompanied by my cat, Gus.
When Mattie Taylor’s twin brother was killed in Vietnam, she lost her best friend and the only person who really understood her. Now, news that her mother is dying sends Mattie back home, despite blaming her father for Mark’s death. Mama’s last wish is that Mattie would read some old letters stored in a trunk, from people Mattie doesn’t even know. Mama insists they hold the answers Mattie is looking for.
1942. Ava Delaney is picking up the pieces of her life following her husband’s death at Pearl Harbor. Living with her mother-in-law on a secluded farm in Tennessee is far different than the life Ava imagined when she married only a few short months ago. Desperate to get out of the house, Ava seeks work at a nearby military base, where she soon discovers the American government is housing Germans who they have classified as enemy aliens. As Ava works to process legal documents for the military, she crosses paths with Gunther Schneider, a German who is helping care for wounded soldiers. Ava questions why a man as gentle and kind as Gunther should be forced to live in the internment camp, and as they become friends, her sense of the injustice grows . . . as do her feelings for him. Faced with the possibility of losing Gunther, Ava must choose whether loving someone deemed the enemy is a risk worth taking, even if it means being ostracized by all those around her.
In the midst of pain and loss two women must come face-to-face with their own assumptions about what they thought they knew about themselves and others. What they discover will lead to a far greater appreciation of their own legacies and the love of those dearest to them.
My Review:
It hasn’t been that long since I read and reviewed Appalchian Song in August 2024, my first from this author. She used a dual timeline then, as in this novel as well, dividing two main POVs between WWII and Vietnam. Seems I always gravitate more to one timeline and character than the other, and in the case, it was the 40s with Ava Delaney.
Guard Tower at Camp Forrest courtesy US Air Force and Densho Encyclopedia
Ava Delaney is the more liberal, befriending a German classified as an enemy alien during WWII. She secured a job at Camp Forrest in Tullahoma following her husband’s death at Pearl and finds herself attracted to Gunther (who for a short time has his own POV), a medical student prior to his delivery to the internment camp that was part of the massive base in Tennessee. Granted, she didn’t really know her husband and honest in her reason for the marriage, was more for security than love.
Mattie Taylor loses her twin brother to the war in Vietnam a little more than a generation later. She left her parents’ home shortly after the funeral, furious with their lack of opposition to his joining the Marines with his best friend through childhood. Her brother doesn’t come home, his best friend does but with the loss of an arm.
She has returned home following time on the West Coast where she had turned on, tuned out, and dropped out as so many did during the 60s in protest to the war most thought we had no business being in. More than bitter, she seethes fury at anyone backing the government’s involvement that led to her brother’s death and except that she returned to say goodbye to her now terminal mother, would otherwise have continued the life of a “hippie” in a San Francisco commune.
She is developed as petulant, spoiled, ignorant, selfish, and lacking the ability to support anyone other than those who agree with her ideology, which she repeats—more than once.
(This one hits hard since I lost a brother and both he and my husband were conscripted at the same time. Not like they had a choice back then. Whether or not we agreed with the US position (and we didn’t), we tried hard to support our boys, which was made difficult by those who didn’t.)
So, yeah, I did get very weary of Mattie’s position; the loss is devastating no question. But she got very tiresome.
What I did enjoy was the slow discovery of Amy’s story. Again, not sure I could put myself in those shoes, but the measured delivery of how it all came together became obvious.
The writing style is gripping. There are a few twists. There are themes of the futility of war, the physiological and psychological damage to those involved and the resulting damage to the family unit as well as the community, terminal illness, and hope.
Does Mattie ever relax that resentment, begin to see others first, discover ways she can make a difference in their lives as well as her own? You’ll have to read the book and determine for yourself. It just might be the binge-reader you’ve been looking for!
I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author and publisher through @NetGalley that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts.
Rosepoint Rating: Four point Five Stars
Book Details:
Genre: Southern United States Fiction, Southern Fiction, Christian Historical Fiction Publisher: Tyndale Fiction ISBN: 1496484177 ASIN: B0CW1M4P8D Print Length: 359 pages Publication Date: October 1, 2024 Source: Library
The Author:Michelle Shocklee is the author of several historical novels, including COUNT THE NIGHTS BY STARS, winner of the 2023 Christianity Today Book Award in Fiction, and UNDER THE TULIP TREE, a Christy Award and Selah Award finalist. As a woman of mixed heritage–her father’s family is Hispanic and her mother’s roots go back to Germany–she has always celebrated diversity and feels it’s important to see the world through the eyes of one another. Learning from the past and changing the future is why she writes historical fiction.
With both her sons grown, Michelle and her husband make their home in Tennessee, not far from the historical sites she writes about.
Francie Stevens is a young lady learning the modeling trade. She is very lovely and picks up the business fairly well. Some of the designers decide to use her in the upcoming fashion shows and she is quickly becoming famous. Many designers wish to engage her to promote their designs. She is new to the business and eager to please.
This story is well written and follows the format of a story written nearly a century earlier. The plot has many twists and will keep any reader glued to the outcome. The characters are particularly well developed. The French Resistance during WWII honed the skills of many of the participants. Enjoy! 4.5 stars – CE Williams
Rosepoint Publishing 