Helpful Score: 2
The story is not for the faint-of-heart. It deals with a sensitive subject, however Ms. Novak does not go into unnecessary descriptions and nothing is sensationalized.
The first book of an ongoing series, involves a family living a comparatively normal life, considering the Reverend (their step-father) had disappeared OR had he been murdered; by one of them?
The story centers around Grace, who was a young teen at the time and her horrid high school experience with "affluent boys" and how she deals with them and the family mystery 13 years later. She's now a successful assistant DA; upon her return to her hometown, (in an attempt to salvage her present, by resolving this issue from her past) she has to suffer the rude and insulting small-town people, who can't get over the unsolved mystery surrounding her step-father. She knows who and why; it's time to confront the truth.
A special character, who was just precious, in the little 8 year old boy that befriends her, on her first day back in town. Her interaction with him is just heart-warming. Grace's subsequent meeting of the young boy's family is part of what makes this book so compelling.
The first book of an ongoing series, involves a family living a comparatively normal life, considering the Reverend (their step-father) had disappeared OR had he been murdered; by one of them?
The story centers around Grace, who was a young teen at the time and her horrid high school experience with "affluent boys" and how she deals with them and the family mystery 13 years later. She's now a successful assistant DA; upon her return to her hometown, (in an attempt to salvage her present, by resolving this issue from her past) she has to suffer the rude and insulting small-town people, who can't get over the unsolved mystery surrounding her step-father. She knows who and why; it's time to confront the truth.
A special character, who was just precious, in the little 8 year old boy that befriends her, on her first day back in town. Her interaction with him is just heart-warming. Grace's subsequent meeting of the young boy's family is part of what makes this book so compelling.
Helpful Score: 2
In the first of a compelling new series set in the small town of Stillwater, Novak expertly mixes her usual superior characterization with a chilling sense of evil as she pairs up a complicated heroine with a dark past with a caring, honorable man who gives her hope for the future.
Helpful Score: 2
Started off slow...didn't pick up speed by page 100 so I gave up. Life is too short for slow books!
Helpful Score: 2
First in the "Dead" trilogy...great read! One of those you just can't put down until you're done....
Helpful Score: 2
Really good romance, mystery. First time I read this author and was pleasantly surprised at her writing!
