'A Rather Lovely Inheritance' Introduces Charming New Heroine

I received the first three books in this series from author C. A. Belmond from a wonderful publicist at Penguin. The third book A Rather Charming Invitation was released on February 2nd. I've just finished the first book A Rather Lovely Inheritance (since my reading OCD prevents me from reading series books out of order), and I was thoroughly enthralled by Penny Nichols, the heroine of the book.

In A Rather Lovely Inheritance, Penny Nichols is a freelance set designer for small budget historical films. She spends her days doing research on necklace designs for medieval queens and appropriate chair choices for inclusions in shots of 16th century French castles. While on location in France, she receives a call from her mother which ultimately changes her life.

Penny's great-aunt and namesake Penelope has passed away, leaving behind a will that spreads her inheritance among her living relatives. This is a group Penny knows little about, with her parents and herself living in America and them living in Europe. When Penny travels to London for the reading of the will, she meets her lawyer cousin Jeremy again (after a few childhood summers spent together when they were young), her thug-like cousin Rollo for the first time, and an odd aunt or two, as well.

Things heat up when Penny and her mother inherit more than some family members think they should have. Penny moves into the expensive London apartment her mother inherits, and mysterious things begin to happen. Family secrets come to light, including some about her only ally in all this, Jeremy. Penny also travels to the south of France, where she was given Aunt Penelope's French villa's garage and its contents. Penny searches for the truth in all the mess around her, prompting attacks on herself and forcing Jeremy away in the process.

Belmond has brought readers a new heroine to be excited about in this series. Think Becky Bloomwood (without the shopping habit) and Bridget Jones (without some of the embarrassing moments). Penny is a likeable, intelligent female character whose new heiress lifestyle is the stuff dreams are made of. The only component of the book which didn't quite work for me was the romantic relationship. Penny becomes romantically involved with a family member who doesn't turn out to be blood-related. However, romances with even step-family members seem a little twisted to me -- in an innocent, Clueless-style way, of course.

I'm looking forward to the other two books in this series. Belmond has taught writing at NYU and written and directed for television and film.

'Nine Dragons' Takes Harry Bosch to Hong Kong From Los Angeles & to a Father From a Policeman

I almost hesitate to write this post, because if I do, then it will mean I really don't have anymore Michael Connelly books to read. I've read them all. There will be another book, of course, sometime in 2010. But not yet. It will be called The Reversal, and both Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller will star. I'm getting off topic. Back to the real reason for this post (and for my procrastination in writing it) -- Michael Connelly's latest novel, a Harry Bosch series book called Nine Dragons. Without knowing anything at all about the book, I immediately connected it to Asia. Why? I have no idea. I guess there aren't very many places to which you could connect dragons. Asia seems to me to be one of the only ones. So I connected the novel to Asia in my mind for whatever weird reason. And guess what? I was right.

This may be one of my shortest discussions of a book I loved that I've ever written. The reasoning behind that is simple: I don't want to give anything away. Well, that, and I think you should read it as soon as possible. Nine Dragons is a fantastic addition to the Harry Bosch library. I've heard multiple reviewers label it as the "most personal Harry Bosch novel yet", and I think they are correct in some ways. On the other hand, Connelly hasn't been stingy when it comes to being personal with Harry Bosch. Readers followed Bosch investigate his mother's murder in The Last Coyote and learned about his time in Vietnam as a "tunnel rat" in The Black Echo. Bosch seems gruff, but in fact wears his heart on his sleeve oftentimes.

In Nine Dragons, there are two pivotal events: a murder at a liquor store which Bosch and his partner are sent to investigate, and his daughter's disappearance on the other side of the world. In order to solve the murder and find his daughter, Bosch travels across the ocean to Hong Kong, where his daughter Madeline and ex-wife Eleanor Wish have lived for several years. Bosch acts as the police detective he has been for many years, and struggles throughout the novel to reconcile that person with the father he is now.

Connelly includes lots of action, including one particular scene (which I can't describe without giving away plot points) that I felt fell short. I suppose in real life, shoot-outs and sudden hand-fights come on suddenly. However, in the novel, one of those full-of-excitement scenes seemed to come out of nowhere. Other than my disappointment in that scene, Connelly has concocted an excellent addition to the Harry Bosch novels. Bosch's character shines with a quiet nobility, yet the plot is gritty and realistic.

Connelly reads from a section written just after Bosch has arrived in Hong Kong:

Michael Connelly Speaks About Inspiration, And I Reveal My Obsessive Nature

It was wonderful to meet Michael Connelly on Saturday at Currey Ingram Academy in Brentwood, Tennessee. He spoke as part of their Fine Arts fundraising weekend. My friend Caroline accompanied me; we made a day of it, following the book signing with a day in the Nashville/ Murfreesboro area (World Market, Target, Ann Taylor LOFT -- you know, the important things we don't have in our smaller town).

We learned that he has at least a niece and nephew who attend CIA (possibly more, but I know that those two are both seniors at the school), which meant that the school had connections which brought Connelly to Nashville. I'm very grateful that they did! It was an honor to hear him speak. He began with a short speech about inspiration, both in general and in his own life. He showed the audience a painting his father created, and spoke about his parents' giving up their dreams (his father was admitted to a prestigious art school, but ultimately made his living as a builder) to raise a family. He also communicated their pride in him and his siblings, and their constant inspiration to him as they encouraged him to follow his dream to be a writer.

Connelly began his writing career as a crime beat reporter, which he referred to as "slumming it as a reporter" until he could launch his real career -- that of a novelist. He stated that he knew writing novels was what he ultimately wanted to do, but he also knew that as a crime journalist he would gain daily writing practice and important knowledge about crime that would lead to reality-based detective novels. Connelly then took questions from the audience, which led to discussions of his characters and their real-life human inspirations, Connelly's longtime protagonist Harry Bosch, and the writing process (among many other topics).

At long last (well, actually we kind of "merged" ourselves into the signing line, so it wasn't that long...) we actually met Connelly, or the creator of Harry Bosch (as I often think of him). He was very cordial, and agreed to take the picture you see in this post of the three of us. It has to be difficult to smile and sign for so long, even though it must also be a rush to meet your fans/ readers face-to-face.

He also officially thinks I'm a crazy person -- I told him that I had read all of his books in chronological order so that I didn't miss anything or a reference to anyone who had appeared in a previous book.
"Would that be so bad?" he asked.
"Well, it would be for me..." I replied, a bit flustered.
"My publisher is always telling me I need to get new readers, but it's hard to say 'Hey, you should read the fifteenth novel in a series,' to people," he looked at me as though I were definitely part of the problem.
"Oh,well, I've read all of your books in the past 6 or 8 months, so I was ready for the newest one when it came out," I tried to better explain.
"Wow," was his only response. At this point I posed for the picture, thanked him, and walked away, realizing that I sounded slightly stalker-ish. And that the great Michael Connelly now thought I was some sort of mad woman.

All in all, a good day.

'The Scarecrow' Shows Pure Genius in Literary Equivalent of 'Criminal Minds'

In The Scarecrow Michael Connelly has written his most intriguing and well-crafted mystery to date. The work he has put into this novel shows particularly because it is not a true mystery at all. Rather, the reader is fully aware of who the villian is from almost the very beginning. In my opinion, that is a bold move because it means that Connelly has to work twice as hard to make things interesting. After all, wondering "whodunnit" is half the draw of a good mystery. Generally, the mystery writer is busy throwing out false leads and wrong turns for his or her readers. Connelly makes his job all the more difficult by answering that from the get-go and forcing his writing to a higher level.

I recently began watching the television crime series Criminal Minds (and yes, I realize it has been on for several seasons already). I'm almost through the first season, and one of the reasons the show keeps my attention is its dramatically different point of view. Rather than only following the path of the victim and the law enforcement officers trying to catch the criminal, Criminal Minds takes viewers into the mind of the criminal himself. Michael Connelly's The Scarecrow is the literary equivalent of that television show. Connelly divides the novel into sections based on location and on the characters present. The story is told from both the perspective of the killer and of those who seek him.

All of Michael Connelly's books tie in together, and this is no exception. Main character Jack McEvoy has appeared in Connelly books before. He starred in his own story in 1996's The Poet, then moonlighted in both Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller novels later on (including the Bosch/Haller crossover novel The Brass Verdict in 2008). Connelly returns to McEvoy as protagonist for The Scarecrow. Connelly also includes FBI agent Rachel Walling, a former love interest for both McEvoy and Harry Bosch.

In The Scarecrow, McEvoy has fallen victim to the age of technology and receives a lay-off notice from the Los Angeles Times. He has two weeks to train his replacement, then he will be on his own. He has plans to finish a novel he started years ago, but other events begin to fall into place that help keep him focused on his career in journalism. Soon he is working on one last big story with the help of his young and beautiful protege Angela Cook. Fresh from journalism school, Angela provides the newspaper with the technological savvy it craves and demands a much lower salary than veteran McEvoy. Angela oversteps her bounds, causing McEvoy to leave town on a chase for a killer. From Las Vegas to the Arizona desert, Connelly provides edge-of-your-seat entertainment to the novel's action-packed end. However, he doesn't leave his reader there; rather, he goes on to close with a haunting look at a cold-blooded psychopath.



Connelly will be speaking and signing books at Currey Ingram Academy in Brentwood, Tennessee, this Saturday morning (and I can't wait to meet him there!). He'll also be in Los Angeles in March and April. Check his schedule to find out when he'll be near you. For more videos from the author, including a three-part mini-movie that details Rachel Walling's activities just prior to The Scarecrow's opening, visit his website.

Sneak Peek at the Giveaway Book

Don't forget to leave a comment to enter my first giveaway EVER! Here's a little bit more information about the book that's up for grabs -- C. A. Belmond's A Rather Charming Invitation:

Summary from Amazon.com:

Dateline: London, Paris, Antibes. It's time to get down to wedding planning. But while heiress Penny's distant relatives insist that the nuptials be held in their native France, Jeremy's kin won't have it anywhere but England. And either choice might just re-ignite the Hundred Years' War...

Then, in a family château high above the perfume fields of Grasse, Penny's French cousin offers her the loan of an ancient bridal tapestry. But Penny has barely begun to crack its perplexing imagery before a series of strange events unfolds, threatening to derail the wedding. From a secret chalet on Lake Geneva, to a nostalgic stop at the opulent Train Bleu, to a winner-take-all gamble in Monte Carlo, Penny and Jeremy are off on another romp...while the clock is ticking down until they say, "I do."

Click here to read an excerpt from the novel, available on Belmond's website. Enter to win a copy of your very own here. May the best man (or woman) win!

Keep the Lights On While Reading 'Deja Dead'

We went on a vacation this past weekend to the Smoky Mountains. Among the books I took with me was Kathy Reichs' first novel Deja Dead. Although Reichs has been a bestselling author for more than ten years and has also successfully produced the hit television show Bones (which is loosely based on her books), for some reason I had never read anything by her until now.

Deja Dead, Reichs' first novel and the first book in her Temperance Brennan series, was not one I could put down. It also wasn't a good choice for a secluded mountain cabin! We heard several noises on our last night there; we searched the cabin high and low from the closets to under each bed and, of course, found nothing. We finally decided we had heard squirrels or some other animals on the roof or in the attic, but my being frightened was hard to dissipate -- primarily because I had been reading this novel!

I'm pretty excited to have discovered a new series with eleven more books still waiting to be read. I overheard an elderly lady complaining to another library patron last week that it was so hard for her to find new books to read; she said that she'd read every book by every author she loved, and she hated waiting for their next book to come out. I feel her pain; I hate that, too! Thank goodness I've found Kathy Reichs.

The series follows forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan -- Tempe for short -- as she works in Montreal, Quebec. She is on staff at the the Laboratoire des Sciences Judiciaires et de Médecine Légale, which is a fancy (French) way of saying she works for the province coroner's office. There she provides expert examinations on bones found. Sometimes she discovers that she has only found a dog or other animal; often she discovers skeletons from old burial sites. But then there are the more interesting cases -- the ones that are more recent and that involve murder.

In Deja Dead, Reichs introduces readers not only to Tempe, but also to the city of Montreal. As someone who is totally ignorant of most things Canadian, I found her descriptions of the city, its holidays and celebrations, its culture, its language, its geography, and its people fascinating. Tempe is a North Carolina native, so Reichs also includes just enough southern references to make me happy, as well. When the series opens, Tempe is alone in Canada. Her marriage has recently dissolved, and her only daughter is still living and attending college in North Carolina. Tempe has a small circle of acquaintances in Montreal: her co-workers at the coroner's office, the policemen they often team with, and her best friend Gabby who she's known since graduate school. And, of course, her cat Birdie.

Tempe is about to leave the city for a long weekend away when she gets a call that a set of bones have been found. When she sees the bones piled into a garbage bag and buried in a wooded area, she knows she's in for a long night. Other victims with similarities begin to surface, both from old and new cases. Tempe is convinced that a serial killer is on the loose, but she is unable to convince the detectives working the case. Tempe does some investigating of her own and also calls in some favors from experts she knows around the world, both in private and university labs and at Quantico's FBI behavioral analysis unit. As she works to find the killer (or killers), the stakes become higher as she discovers that both her friend Gabby and her daughter Katy may be in danger, as well.

Reichs has done an excellent job in this first novel. Deja Dead was a definite page-turner. There were enough plot twists to keep it interesting, but it remained reality-based throughout and was very believable. Reichs includes much scientific detail (perhaps a bit too much in some places), but her science is correct to a fault. And as well it should be -- Reichs herself is a forensic anthropologist who has worked both in North Carolina and in Montreal doing the very job Tempe does in the book. Although I hate to compare her (Reichs is fantastic in her own right), she is similar to Patricia Cornwell in that she writes about what she knows -- and both authors do so very well.

Deja Dead will scare you (You may have to sleep with a bedside lamp on for a few nights!), but the book is worth a few nightmares. I'll be reviewing the rest of the series as quickly as I can get my hands on them!

Inaugural Giveaway Monday: C.A. Belmond's 'A Rather Charming Invitation'

So I feel like I'm finally in the "real" book blogging world. Several exciting book-related things have been happening lately:

1. I've been getting positive responses from advanced reading copy (ARC) requests. So far, the authors and publishers I've contacted have been wonderful! They've replied with oh-so-nice emails, and I've received several books. You can read more about that in my new "Policy and Procedures" post (scroll down on the left until you see my profile link; it's directly above it). Anytime I'm discussing a copy I have received from the author or publisher or publicist, you'll notice the label "Review Copy" to distinguish it from library or bought books. It's pretty neat to be able to read & review books before they are released, and even better to be able to promote authors I really love.
2. I'm going to be participating in my first ever book club next weekend. I know, I know. How could I never have done this before now? What took me so long? My friend (and fellow reader) Caroline and I decided that it's because we know very few people in our everyday lives who enjoy reading as much as we do. Thus, if we had ever started a book club, it would have consisted of... Well, us. We'll work on that for the future, but until then, my cousin Jennifer has asked me to participate in a book club in the Nashville area. Suffice it to say that I'm pretty excited! The first selection for the group is Joshilyn Jackson's The Girl Who Stopped Swimming. I read this book last fall, but I'm revisiting it so that I can discuss it next weekend.
3. Michael Connelly is coming to Nashville next Saturday to speak at a local high school! He'll be discussing his newest Harry Bosch novel, Nine Dragons and (hopefully) signing, as well. He was one of my top writers to read in 2009; last year I read every novel he's ever written -- in order -- except for the two newest. And those (Nine Dragons and The Scarecrow), I purchased today at McKay Used Books in Knoxville. I can't wait to read them and to meet Connelly in person next Saturday.

And so, to celebrate all of these great things, I have a book giveaway -- my first! Megan Swartz at Peguin provided me with an extra copy for giveaway of C. A. Belmond's newest novel A Rather Charming Invitation. This is the third in a series about heiress Penny Nichols. I've begun the first book in the series, A Rather Lovely Inheritance, and I'm enjoying it immensely. So far, Belmond's writing reminds me of Meg Cabot, Helen Fielding, and Sophie Kinsella. Chick lit from a well-traveled, continental perspective.


How do you enter the giveaway for C. A. Belmond's A Rather Charming Invitation?

• Leave a comment on this post (1 entry).
• Tweet about this giveaway & post link in comments (2 additional entries!)
• Post on your blog about this giveaway & post link in comments (3 additional entries!!)

The giveaway deadline is Monday, February 22nd at 12:00am (in other words, actually Sunday night). So comment, tweet, & blog this week for chances to win. The winner will be contacted next Monday via email so that I can get mailing address information. If you haven't replied within 24 hours, the first runner up will be contacted. Bear with me through any mishaps, since this is my first time doing a giveaway! (*Note: If you are an anonymous user, you will have to leave your email address in your comment, as there will be no other way for me to find you, should you win!)

'High Anxiety' Offers Fun Break From Daily Stress

Kate Holly just can't seem to catch a break. The clinical psychologist from Atlanta, Georgia, endures catastrophe after catastrophe in each book in this series from novelist Charlotte Hughes, and the third (and newest) installment High Anxiety is no exception. Of course, catastrophe is somewhat the business Kate is in; she counsels patients with mental illness at her practice in a multi-business building in Atlanta (You can do your banking AND grab a bite to eat after your therapy session!).

There's the former Marine with gender identity disorder (who currently lives with Kate's own mother and aunt), the man with OCD who feels he has to move anytime he brings dirt into his home, the woman with borderline personality disorder who feels the world revolves around her, and -- of course -- the lady with multiple personality disorder whose personalities change as frequently as other people might change the music on their iPods. Kate tries her best to help her patients live normal lives, but she is always getting caught up in the midst of her own personal problems (and having to deal with the touch of OCD she herself suffers from).

In High Anxiety, Kate and ex-husband Jay are still trying their best to make their relationship work. He's a firefighter with a history of getting hurt on the job; his commitment to his work drives Kate crazy. She'd rather he settle down and find a less accident-prone career. But Jay worries about Kate, as well; the patients Kate sees have a tendency to get violent when unhappy. Her office has been blown up, and she's suffered various maladies in the previous two novels. But both stick to their guns and refuse to give up the work they love. Thus, they've been divorced and now are trying to work through their issues.

As Jay travels to Florida to help fight an outbreak of wildfires, Kate has troubles of her own back in Atlanta. First, she gets involved in a minor shooting incident while managing an anger management group. Then one of her patients goes into crisis and has to be hospitalized. In addition to all of these problems, Kate's best friend and secretary Mona falls ill. When Mona's replacement from a temp agency begins at the office, she brings with her a whole host of new problems.

Like Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series and the "Full" series that Hughes and Evanovich pen together, Hughes inserts plenty of humor into the Kate Holly series, as well. Kate's mother and aunt provide much of it, with their twin overalls and big pick-up truck for junk-finding. Kate's patients also provide comic relief at times, mixed in with their actual problems. (As we often say in the social work business, 'You have to laugh, or you'd cry.') Romance comes into the series through both the relationship between Kate and Jay, as well as the constant badgering Kate endures from her old beau and colleague Thad. And, of course, Hughes includes a bit of suspense as the reader wonders what will result from Kate's new hire.

High Anxiety is good southern fun. As I mentioned above, Hughes has partnered with Janet Evanovich in the past. Her Kate Holly series is the latest solo project she's done. In addition to the "Full" series with Evanovich and the Kate Holly series, she has written dozens of romance, romance-suspence, and "soft" horror novels. Visit her website for more info on other books, tour information, and her blog.

'A Friend of the Family' Builds Suspense, But Ultimately Fizzles

I wanted to like Lauren Grodstein's A Friend of the Family. I really wanted to. But in the end, I was disappointed. The novel was named one of Amazon's Best Books of the Month in November 2009; critics gave it rave reviews. Usually, that means something. And I'll have to hand it to Grodstein -- she made me interested in her story and in her characters. I wanted to know: what did Dr. Pete Dizinoff do? And truly, that is the driving question behind the story.

In the novel's beginning, Grodstein writes, from Pete's perspective, that he "ha[s] a home, of sorts -- the room [he] built . . . above the garage" (1) behind his house. She then relates a scene in which a half-drunk can of beer is thrown at Pete by a young man who obviously holds disdain for him; "'I'll get you!' the kid on the boat screams" (12) as Pete walks along the Hudson River. Slowly -- and I do mean slowly -- Grodstein introduces her readers to several problems in the dream life Pete and his wife have built. They live in a suburb of New York City, and Pete has made it his business to look be an early detector for unusual diseases. It's his specialty in his internal medicine practice, and he takes pride in his constant perusals of the Journal of the American Medical Association. But disaster strikes as his son pursues his own dreams rather than those of his parents, a friend's daughter moves back into town, and his medical practice comes under fire.

But which is the problem that has caused Pete to be banished to the garage apartment, and what exactly is his crime involving that problem? That we don't find out until very late in the book, and by that time I had lost all interest in anything else. It's almost as though Grodstein does TOO good a job at building suspense. She doesn't know when to let go and tell a good story. Because there are pieces of good stories mixed into the novel -- infanticide, adultery, cancer, art versus education... However, none of these are developed into a full plot with a timely climax. And while I was searching for the answer to the above question (What did Dr. Pete do?), I completely skipped over large sections of (what I'm sure was) beautiful prose and character development. 'Yes, yes,' I could almost hear myself thinking out loud, 'He's tortured. I get it! He loves his wife. I get it! And his son. I get it! But what did he DO?' Grodstein held out a little too long, and in the end I was flipping pages in the hopes that the next paragraph/ page would hold the answer.

When I finally found out, I was disappointed. I won't say more -- I don't want to spoil the story for those of you who will go on and read it. But it was disappointing to me. And the eventual ending? Also disappointing. True-to-life, perhaps, but disappointing all the same. And I never really developed any sort of empathy for the main characters. Pete is self-absorbed; his son is immature; his wife is a pushover; and the "friend of the family" Laura is a bizarre portrait of a troubled young girl with little reasoning given for her crisis-bound state.

Still want to try the novel for yourself? Remember, most people loved it, including more experienced critics than me!**

**Note on the use of "me" rather than "I": I consulted with Grammar Girl on this one, and she says both "me" and "I" are correct after "than", according to standard English. On one hand, this is because the "understood" parts of the sentence can be more than one thing. For example, I could have been saying: "Remember, most people loved it, including more experienced critics than [I am]." But something else to think about is the way it sounds. Grammar Girl says that most people aren't going to say, "I'm taller than he," because it "sounds too formal in casual setting." Also, there is much debate on whether or not "than" can sometimes be a conjunction and or whether it is always a preposition. Prepositionists say "me" would always be correct after "than", while conjunctionists argue that "I" is often correct.

'Secrets of Eden' Presents Four Distinct Perspectives on Domestic Violence, Angels, and Guilt

Reading time has been at a minimum for me the past few days, but every second I had to spare, I was reading Chris Bohjalian's new release Secrets of Eden. I'm still stunned by my reading, by the ending, and by the craftsmanship that went into the creation of this novel. I've read almost everything published by Bohjalian. His claim to fame was the novel Midwives when it was chosen as an Oprah's Book Club selection in October of 1998. Although it was not his first novel, it was the first novel that reached a widespread audience. Since then, Bohjalian has written a wonderful array of works that includes The Law of Similars and The Double Bind, which revisits the setting of The Great Gatsby and ties into that classic novel. Even with an excellent body of previous novels, Secrets of Eden is Bohjalian's best work to date.

Why, you might ask, is this his best? And why, also, is it better than many other novels out there? For me, that answer is multi-fold. For one thing, and perhaps the most simple answer: I am interested and feel strongly about the topic. Bohjalian addresses domestic violence in this newest novel, and as a women's studies minor in college, the topic is an important one to me. Also, setting is always important in my mind -- I read books as a way to explore places I've never seen -- and Bohjalian is a master at making the setting evident and also in making it an integral part of the story. The third reason I believe Secrets of Eden is an exceptional novel is Bohjalian's use of four distinct characters as first-person narrators. And last but not least, the novel is a mystery disguised as a piece of literature. While I love a well-written piece of literature, I love a good mystery even more; what makes Secrets of Eden special is its combination and successful execution of the two.

The Reverend Stephen Drew is the first narrator and therefore introduces Bohjalian's story. Drew is a small-town, rural Vermont pastor, a college-educated man who turned to the church as a less-than-heartfelt calling. He believes in God and his power, and he tries his best to minister to his congregation. Or, at least, he has -- until one life-changing event: the death of parishioner Alice Hayward at the hands of her husband George, and the George's subsequent suicide. By using Drew as the story's first narrator, Bohjalian paints him as a sympathetic character. His first-person narrative gives readers background and sets the tone for the rest of the novel.

Bohjalian follows Drew's narrative with state prosecutor Catherine Benincasa's side of the story. Benincasa relates the investigators' side of the story as they begin to doubt that the tragic deaths of the Haywards was not a cut-and-dried case of murder/suicide, but something more. Benincasa's section allow Bohjalian to describe the circumstances from a very different place than the pastor's. Details from the medical examiner's report and interviews conducted by police offers become part of the story. While ostensibly not a friend of Drew's (and perhaps even an enemy), Benincasa is presented as a likeable character, as well.

In the third section Bohjalian switches to Heather Laurent's perspective. Laurent is a well-known author of books about angels. She has a violent history of her own which leads her to visit the small Vermont town where the Hayward's deaths seem to have affected everyone. Laurent works to heal those left behind through her auras and angels. Her own background story ties into the novel's main plot and provides an interesting tangential storyline.

Bohjalian closes the novel with a section narrated by the Haywards' daughter Katie. Katie's section reads the way a teenager speaks. As she imagines her parents' last hours, she uses words like "no way" and "seriously". The story, which until this point has been interesting but told from outsiders' perspectives, becomes personal as you read the feelings of the newly-orphaned teen. Katie is wise beyond her years as a result of her father's violence and her mother's compliance.

Bohjalian discusses the novel and his inspiration for writing it:



Bohjalian builds suspense right up until the very end -- so slowly and yet with great care. He leads you on a path of finding out details without giving so much away that you can guess the ending. Secrets of Eden is a thriller, but it is literature, as well. Long-time readers of Bohjalian's works will recognize that while all of his novels are different in their subject matter, all are similar in that they contain some level of mystery. Secrets of Eden is no exception to that rule. By using first-person narrators throughout the novel, but different ones, Bohjalian is able to control how much the reader learns by default -- each character only knows what they have experienced or been told. This increases the sense of mystery and forces the reader to look forward to the next section and the next for the information each contains.

Secrets of Eden will be made into a television movie by Lifetime. I, for one, can't wait to see this exquisite novel unfold on the screen. To read about the inspiration for this novel, read Bohjalian's article about domestic violence in the Huffington Post. To get a signed copy and listen to the author speak, check out tour dates for this novel.