Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of The Scent of Rain and Lightning

The Scent of Rain and Lightning
reviewed on + 116 more book reviews


Author Nancy Pickard does a wonderful job of setting the scene for her novel The Scent of Rain and Lightning. The reader really feels like he or she is in the small town of Rose, Kansas visiting the High Rock Ranch. I think that's why it was so easy for me to get wrapped up in the story of the Linder family, the town's most prominent family, and Jody Linder, who lost her parents more than 20 years earlier in a night of violence. Now, Billy Crosby, the man convicted of her father's murder and mother's presumed death, has been set free from jail, thanks to the efforts of his son who is now a lawyer. That shocking news is followed by more surprises when Jody learns that many in the town feel that there was a rush to judgment and that Crosby was wrongly convicted. Jody wants the truth, about her parents, their marriage, Crosby, Crosby's son Collin, and mostly importantly, what exactly happened on that stormy night 23 years earlier. Quick read, page-turner.