The Virgin of Small Plains: A Novel

Description

Small Plains, Kansas, January 23, 1987: In the midst of a deadly blizzard, eighteen-year-old Rex Shellenberger scours his father’s pasture, looking for helpless newborn calves. Then he makes a shocking discovery: the naked, frozen body of a teenage girl, her skin as white as the snow around her. Even dead, she is the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen. It is a moment that will forever change his life and the lives of everyone around him. The mysterious dead girl–the “Virgin of Small Plains”–inspires local reverence. In the two decades following her death, strange miracles visit those who faithfully tend to her grave; some even believe that her spirit can cure deadly illnesses. Slowly, word of the legend spreads.

But what really happened in that snow-covered field? Why did young Mitch Newquist disappear the day after the Virgin’s body was found, leaving behind his distraught girlfriend, Abby Reynolds? Why do the town’s three most powerful men–Dr. Quentin Reynolds, former sheriff Nathan Shellenberger, and Judge, Tom Newquist–all seem to be hiding the details of that night?

Seventeen years later, when Mitch suddenly returns to Small Plains, simmering tensions come to a head, ghosts that had long slumbered whisper anew, and the secrets that some wish would stay buried rise again from the grave of the Virgin. Abby–never having resolved her feelings for Mitch–is now determined to uncover exactly what happened so many years ago to tear their lives apart.

Three families and three friends, their worlds inexorably altered in the course of one night, must confront the ever-unfolding consequences in award-winning author Nancy Pickard’s remarkable novel of suspense. Wonderfully written and utterly absorbing, The Virgin of Small Plains is about the loss of faith, trust, and innocence . . . and the possibility of redemption.


From the Hardcover edition.

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Customer Reviews

the suspense is killing me!
I haven't even finished the book yet! and yet here I am already reviewing it! I am completely enthralled with it! I don't wanna put it down. I just can't stop gushing about it! I'm just scared to finish it because I don't want the trill ride to end! This is one of the best suspense novels I have read in a long time! Matter fact I would rank this in my top 3! Oh man ok here I go I'm gonna finish it an I just pray that I don't get too sad when my ride on this rollercoaster of a book is over!

2010-07-27 | God Bless (usa) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Intriguing story with likable characters
I think that Nancy Pickard did an excellent job of drawing clear word pictures of the characters in her novel. How refreshing to read a story which hinges on family loyalties and friendships, even if some of them may have been misplaced. This was a book which had me thinking about it for days after reading the final chapter,and mulling over the characters almost as if they were people I had met, which is a high compliment for the author.

Yes, I figured out most of the story early, as did another reviewer, but there was enough intrigue and convolution with how all the facts fit together to keep it interesting. And, I liked the characters and would have thought them interesting people if I could meet them in person. I gave the book four stars, even though it had me remembering the characters and motives very clearly for a couple of days afterwards, and that last star was reserved because the love angle was a little predictible. A small thing, and not unpleasant, just a little obvious.

2010-07-16 | wool2dye4 (Virginia) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Excellent Read!!!
It was a very good read, very much the mid west experience, for a East Coast person it was a delight to get to know the characters.

2010-06-28 (New York City) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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This should be a novel for preteens, not adults
I can't quite understand the 5-star reviews. The plot could have been moderately interesting, but the writing was incredibly juvenile and characters impossible to believe. This might have entertained me when I was twelve or so, but for adults this is just a painful read.

2010-06-27 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 1

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Best Book Ever
I don't normally review books, but I couldn't not comment on this one. Pure and simple genius. This is by far the best book I have ever read. I was so impressed by it, I recommended it to a friend, and now she's ALSO saying it's the best book SHE has ever read! We both immediately purchased The Scent of Rain and Lightning after reading this book. How is this not a best seller? Honestly, it is actually INSANE how amazing this book is.'

Also, I've never contacted an author before, but her book was so wonderful I wanted to contact her personally to tell her what a wonderful job I thought she did. I dropped her an email, and she was very nice! Which didn't surprise me. You can just "tell" sometimes by reading someone's book what kind of person they are.

Nancy Pickard is extremely creative. She's an inspired individual and she appreciates her fans. When I ordered The Scent of Rain and Lightning, I ordered through the book store "I Love A Mystery" because Nancy stops by there to sign copies of her books on request. So I bought through them to have a signed copy.

I've never had anyone's autograph before. Never cared. But writers like these are few and far between. I've read a lot of books, but nothing compares to this one. It sets a new standard for writing. Even though I kind of had a partial idea of what happened in the mystery, I NEVER could have imagined the full depth of it. And my friend who also read the book was COMPLETELY clueless until the very end. It's a wonderful mystery. Enjoy!

2010-06-20 | Shana (fl) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Ring of Truth (Marie Lightfoot)

Description

Sex, violence, evil, and betrayal -- the shocking murder case splashed across the Florida headlines has all the right elements for true-crime writer Marie Lightfoot's next bestseller. And tell the tale she does, in a book that reveals the secrets of a love affair gone fatally wrong. But there are disturbing twists, which leave Marie sensing in her gut that something does not jibe.

Twist number one: the accused is a man of the cloth, who has allegedly killed his wife in collusion with his lover. Twist number two: a pair of young girls find the body in an abandoned mansion, adding the death of innocence to the magnitude of the crime. Twist number three: a shattering conviction turns the case on its ear. And the ultimate blow: for the first time in her career, Marie fails to win the the killer's confidence during a jailhouse interview. Suddenly, she knows with certainty there ia more to the story than even she realized -- and her conscience won't let her rest.

Then an unexpected visitor -- a shock in itself for the reclusive writer -- confesses something that not even the police know. The revelation may he the missing piece in a terrifying puzzle -- evidence that teaches Marie a bone-chilling lesson as threatening danger slowly encircles her: to err is human, but underestimating the criminal mind can be deadly.

Nancy Pickard premiered gutsy Marie Lightfoot in the national bestseller The Whole Truth, and kicked off a thrilling new series with "an intriguing story, fascinatingly told" (The Philadelphia Inquirer). Now, Pickard once again "pushes the presumed limits of [crime fiction]" (Los Angeles Times) as she sends this complex heroine into a jagged maze with one destination: the darkest realm of human nature.

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Customer Reviews

Overall very pleased
Overall, I was happy with the condition of the book...it was a little bent, but I think after putting weight on it for awhile, it will straighten out.

2010-05-30 | ravidreader (WILDWOOD, MO, US) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Ring of Truth
I like some of Nancy Pickard's books better than this, but it was a good read.

2007-03-12 | PM Designs (St;. Louis, MO) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Who murdered the art of proofreading?
I purchased a paperback edition. This problem may or may not exist in the hardcover version; but it shouldn't have gone undetected anywhere. It's significant for the plot that Marie Lightfoot realizes a character made a slip of the tongue in an earlier conversation. That would, of course, have been a fair-play clue given the reader. But when the reader looks back to check the conversation, it turns out that the character didn't make a slip of the tongue--didn't say the word in question at all!

2006-11-03 (Albany, NY United States) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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I really really really enjoyed this book
"Ring of Truth" is the first book I have read by Nancy Pickard. Most mystery novels revolve around cops, attorneys, or private investigators. The main character in this book is a true crime author who is researching her latest book "Anything to Be Together". The characters are really well-drawn and had realistic good points and bad points, rather than the same old same old where the hero has to be a jaded yet scruptuously honest, ruggedly handsome police detective or crusading district attorney. The people on one side in this story aren't portrayed as all good and those on the other side all bad, and my idea of which were which changed with every turn of a page. You WILL be surprised! There are a lot of twists and turns and complexities which make this book really fresh, interesting, and enjoyable. I totally disagree with another reviewer who felt that the author used this book as a platform to rail against the death penalty and criticize the police. I am going to read every book in this series right away!

2006-10-01 (USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Disappointing
It grabbed my attention in the beginning, but quickly became a diatribe about the death penalty and anti-police. The ending was so convoluted to be absolutely unbeliveable. I usually read true crime stories which I find more interesting than fiction. It was so bad, that I could not finish the last chapter. Luckily, I bought this at a thrift store for $1.00. It was so bad - that rather than passing it on to another charity, I discarded it in the trash. What a waste of time. I will never read another Nancy Pickard book.

2005-11-21 | reader (Philadelphia, PA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 1

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The Truth Hurts

Description

MURDER BY THE BOOK

It's the most bizarre and frightening proposal true-crime writer Marie Lightfoot has ever received: a killer wants Marie to collaborate with him by becoming his next victim -- and writing a book about her own murder. But for Marie, it may be the key to solving her most personal mystery and at last uncover the truth about the disappearance of her parents. They were underground Civil Rights activists who vanished during the explosive summer of 1963. Now Marie must follow the instructions of her "co-author" to find the answers she seeks in a small Alabama town -- while racing to outwit her would-be killer before she is forced to write her own final page.

Following The Whole Truth and Ring of Truth, award-winning author Nancy Pickard pens the sensational third novel in the acclaimed series starring Marie Lightfoot. It's no lie that The Truth Hurts is her most hair-raising page-turner yet.

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Customer Reviews

Very far-fetched
Pickard doesn't have a real "feel" for the South. Some of the mannerisms and customs she described were laughable. Southerners don't sit around and drink Mint Juleps unless it's the Kentucky Derby. I never heard of an 60's era Underground Railroad for blacks such as she described. If something like that were going on in a small town, everyone would know about it right away.
The mystery in the plot was good. Pickard had me guessing as to who the villains in the story were. That's the only good thing about this book.

2008-06-14 (Columbus, Ga.) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 2

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could this book be too well written?
In "Ring of Truth", the first Nancy Pickard mystery I read, the story revolved around the death penalty, a serious subject, but still very enjoyable recreational reading. "The Truth Hurts" has Marie Lightfoot researching the past of her missing parents, who abandoned her as a little baby at a colored hotel in 1963 in Alabama, during the height of the civil rights movement, and were never seen again. They were accused of betraying their fellow civil rights workers. Marie was raised by her aunt and uncle, themselves racists who were less than ideal parents for Marie and her beloved cousin, Nathan. Marie, now a true crime author, had used her research skills to poke halfheartedly into her parent's past and found out nothing. But when a stalker who knows more than he should about her parents threatens Marie and everyone she holds dear, she is forced to find out the truth. I loved the characters in this book, and the plot was very exciting, but it was just too painful to be a fun reading experience. Nancy Pickard is a really skillful writer, and she makes you feel the pain, degradation, and fear of a young black civil rights worker on the run after being released from a horrible jail cell. You feel Marie's fear for herself and her friends as the stalker models himself on the brutal stalker in "Cape Fear". I will always remember Robert Michum in the original "Cape Fear". He was so brutal, so relentless. The writing in this mystery was so good, I was actually uncomfortable reading the book, just as I was watching "Cape Fear".

2006-10-02 (USA) | Helpful Votes: 4 | Rating: 5

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Just Okay-Lacks Depth in Many Places
This is not the very best mystery I have ever read of Nancy Pickard's writing. The story is good enough to stick with though.

It begins with Marie Lightfoot, true crime writer, receiving a scary e-mail. This killer wants Marie to collaborte with him by becoming his next victim-and writing a book about her own murder. But for Marie, it may be the key to solving her most personal mystery and at last uncover the truth about about the disappearance of her parents. They were underground Civil Rights activists who vanished during the explosive summer of 1963. Now Marie must follow the instructions of her "co-author' to find the answers she seeks in a small Alabama town-while racing to outwit her would-be killer before she is forced to write her own final page.

2003-11-27 | book jen (St. Petersburg, FL United States) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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loses its momentum
this book started off great with a personable character and premise. however it began to get formulaic and with the civil rights story attached to it too messy. it also seemed to me as i was reading that the author was writing it as though she hoped it would be made into a movie. i skipped to the end around chapter 18. she had me until then. three old men as the villains didn't do it for me. it would have been more interesting to treat each story in a separate book: one for the mysterious disappearance and death of her parents and the second for the stalker fan.

2003-07-26 | shelby36 (Novato, CA USA) | Helpful Votes: 4 | Rating: 1

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exciting �Marie Lightfoot� crime thriller
She has interviewed and written about killers, psychopaths and spree killers but all her researching skills never enabled her to close in on the truth about what happened to her parents when they seemingly vanished into thin air. True crime writer Marie Lightfoot has given up hope of proving that her parents weren't traitors to the civil rights movement.

One day while shopping at the local supermarket, she picks up a paper and reads about her parents who betrayed a civil rights group called the Hostel in their hometown of Sebastion, Alabama. She is later contacted by email by a man claiming to know the whole story of her parents' death and wants to collaborate with Marie about writing a true crime book where she is the victim. Marie's search for answers takes her back to the town of her birth and a deadly conspiracy that is almost four decades old.

Nancy Pickard has written another exciting installment in her delightful "Marie Lightfoot" crime thriller series. This time the protagonist is portrayed as the victim and through the first person narrative, the audience sees how she suffers. The confrontation with the killers of Marie's parents is so astonishing that readers will never be able to get the scene out of their heads.

Harriet Klausner

2002-07-23 | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 5

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The Whole Truth

Description

"Nancy Pickard pushes at the presumed limits of [crime fiction]" said the Los Angeles Times Book Review, praising the award-winning creator of the Jenny Cain mysteries. Now, Pickard blurs the line between fiction and reality in a novel of gripping intensity, and premieres a superb new heroine: true-crime author Marie Lightfoot. For her next surefire bestseller, Marie is covering the trial of a Florida killer -- a case that penetrates her own life, layer by disturbing layer.

Whether real like Ted Bundy, or imagined like Hannibal Lecter, few killers of our time are in the same league as Raymond Raintree. And as he stands flanked by lawyers in a Florida courtroom, waiting to be convicted for the murder of Natalie Mae McCullen, Marie Lightfoot is taking it all in. A small, gutsy blonde renowned for her true-crime bestsellers, Marie knows the graphic and disturbing case will make her best book yet -- because Raintree's shocking crime, vile beyond imagining, is also impossible to turn away from. But there is something about the case -- and Raintree's involvement -- that bothers her.

No one knows where Raintree, a man as slight and immature as a preteen boy, took Natalie after he abducted her. No one knows how Natalie -- bright, independent, and with no fear of the dark -- could be lured into a stranger's boat on a lonely waterway. And only one witness saw a man who may have been Raintree motoring along in a water taxi on the night Natalie disappeared.

Even if the police can't provide answers, Marie intends to leave no loose ends. Starting with a prison meeting with Raintree, the steely-nerved writer follows a twisted path that leads to Natalie's parents, to a coincidence that doesn't quite gel, and to a place she has resisted all her life: the dark recesses of her own soul, where she hides the secrets of her own lost past.

When Raymond escapes, Marie -- a curious contradiction of celebrity author and introspective loner -- becomes a sitting duck for a killer who just might be smart enough to outwit her. And evil enough to take her to hell before she dies.

A masterpiece of psychological suspense, The Whole Truth is a compelling look at our fascination with the horrific crimes of our time. Nancy Pickard's characters are as close to flesh and blood as fiction can get -- and her writing is as close to perfection.

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With The Whole Truth, Nancy Pickard taps neatly into our national fascination with true crime in a daring novel that seems structurally and philosophically at odds with the conventional mystery story. We know, apparently, "who did it"--as do most true crime readers. People who pick up Ann Rule's The Stranger Beside Me, for example, are usually aware that Ted Bundy was the man responsible for the murders she chronicles. We come to those texts after the fact, as it were; we search not for perpetrator, but for motivation, for explanation. How could these things have happened? What sort of monsters must such criminals be? Pickard's is just such an exploration: it opens with the conviction of one Raymond Raintree for the murder of six-year-old Natalie McCullen, a crime that has shocked South Florida. Marie Lightfoot is in attendance, waiting for the words that will bring to an end The Little Mermaid, the book she is writing about the McCullen case.

However, though it appears her conclusion is written, Marie is deeply worried about the rest of her book: "[Raintree] has no past that anybody, including me, has been able to find. This is not good news for a true crime writer with a book due on her editor's desk in two weeks." But when Ray escapes just after the verdict is read, Marie must accelerate her quest for Ray's actual and emotional origins. Her search has repercussions that lie far beyond the successful completion of her book; she alone can prevent Ray from killing again. Her questions, and their answers, will take her from Florida to the American heartland, from sunshine and palm trees to an unspeakable history of abduction and abuse.

In an intriguing and effective narrative device, Pickard alternates chapters of her "own" text with chapters from The Little Mermaid. This structural twinning hints at the plurality of experience, of the conflicting stories that we create to situate ourselves and others; in realizing that writers must sift through the truth, or truths, to create a coherent narrative, the reader must also sift through the sometimes dovetailing, sometimes elliptical relationship between Pickard's and Lightfoot's stories. The strategy is not wholly successful; at times Pickard introduces elements that lead nowhere, such as Marie's uneasy acceptance of her own parents' disappearance years before; at other times, an apparent impulse to accelerate the action serves only to accentuate gaping holes in the plot. But these are minor complaints; Pickard's novel is, in its quiet fashion, an appealing novelty at the intersection of truth and fiction. --Kelly Flynn

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Customer Reviews

Yawn.
Ms. Pickard doesn't have much literary style in this monotone, monochromatic book. I felt like it was written by a tenth grade student with no talent for writing. The characterizations were shallow and weak, the so-called romance seemed like a thrown in throw away and none of the book engendered any strong feelings, not in the characters, not in the plot and the rather forced and abrupt ending. A fast read, short and not very sweet.....thumbs down for this totally mediocre effort.

2009-04-11 (Denver, CO USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 2

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First-rate
This is the second book that I've read in this series. I read them out of order but I am not disappointed because the first one was stronger than the second. This is a phenomenal read. It is quick-paced, emotional, hard-hitting, real and it includes a mighty clever way of telling the story.

I've read most of the Jenny Cain books and I've sen Pickard grow and mature as a writer. This may very well be her best.

2006-06-21 | intrepid reviewer (Indianapolis, IN) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Tired prose, weak plot, even weaker characters
Ms. Pickard made her name in the light-weight, fluffy detective world of the ever-perky, tart-tongued female detective. Men also creep into this odious offal of a mystery category. In this novel Ms. Pickard pulls her perky detective from the scene and tries to bring some grit and grunge into her writing. Doesn't work. Say it again: Doesn't work. She lionizes rich people in Ft. Lauderdale, shows insufficient understanding of a mentally retarded young man. A grimy salesman from the wrong side of the tracks is invidiously belittled. You have to smell nice to be nice in Pickard's world. I read the entire book and was rewarded with one of the grossest images ever present in a novel. Still didn't do anything for the novel. Also, the black prosecutor's romance with the white reporter was sooo P.C. Why not a Cuban and an American white woman. Not P.C. Simply awful book.

2003-12-04 | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 1

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Bring back Jenny Cain!
As a longtime fan of Pickard's Jenny Cain books, and having been impressed by the Pickard short stories I've read in different anthologies, I was prepared to be impressed by this book--especially considering the raves it has received. In fact, I had to force myself to finish the book.

The main character doesn't have any of the appeal or complexity of Jenny Cain, Pickard's previous series heroine; after spending a whole book with Marie Lightfoot, I felt that she had never really come to life or engaged my interest or sympathy. The chapters from "her" book interspersed with the mystery are flat, shallow, and disappointing as they reduce the potentially intriguing story to conventional, even cliched phrases and flat characterizations. That the chapters from Lightfoot's book are so uninspired makes me less sympathetic to her as a character, and all the more skeptical that everyone else in the book recognizes her as a literary phenomenon.

Perhaps the series will improve, but I'm in no hurry to continue reading. I miss the humor, self-awareness, and spunkiness of Jenny Cain and her supporting characters; this book and heroine rate little more than a disappointed sigh--or yawn.

2003-01-01 | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 2

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Thought Provoking
Nancy Pickard has found an ingenious device, making her series protagonist Marie Lightfoot a true crime author. She presents us with a story within a story. Chapters from her tale "Little Mermaid" are interwoven with her non-publishable thoughts and actions about the murder of a little girl by Raymond Raintree.

Raymond, a curiously young appearing man and perhaps mentally deficient, has confessed. The prosecution has him dead to rights with hard, incontrovertible evidence. The most expensive law firm in the area vigorously defends him. Can there be any doubts? Well, yes. The reader senses something is wrong. Raymond has no motive, no past, and no present. It is as if Raymond has been dropped out of the sky to go on trial for murder. Who is paying for his defense? Sometimes he is totally withdrawn, other times voluble and fantastical about his past and reality. Is he lying? Does he truly not remember anything of his childhood?

Ms. Pickard does an excellent job of keeping the story taut and forward moving. She is dealing with many characters, and they are shot with reality. The ending is a fine, satisfying climax. The introduction of the protagonist's missing parents is a mistake; it never goes anywhere and just distracts from the story. But that is a small complaint. Because of the child victim, the story could be painful for some people to read, and the violence is graphic. However, I think most readers will find this intriguing mystery poignant and sad.

2002-05-12 (RICHMOND, VA USA) | Helpful Votes: 4 | Rating: 4

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The Scent of Rain and Lightning: A Novel

Product Details

• Notes: BUY WITH Conviction, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and assignment to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
• Prerequisite: New
• ISBN13: 9780345471017

Description

One beautiful summer afternoon, from her bedroom window on the second floor, Jody Linder is unnerved to see her three uncles parking their pickups in front of her parents’ house—or what she calls her parents’ house, even though Jay and Laurie Jo Linder have been gone almost all of Jody’s life. “What is this fearsome thing I see?” the young high school English teacher whispers, mimicking Shakespeare. Polished boots, pressed jeans, fresh white shirts, Stetsons—her uncles’ suspiciously clean visiting clothes are a disturbing sign.

The three bring shocking news: The man convicted of murdering Jody’s father is being released from prison and returning to the small town of Rose, Kansas. It has been twenty-six years since that stormy night when, as baby Jody lay asleep in her crib, her father was shot and killed and her mother disappeared, presumed dead. Neither the protective embrace of Jody’s uncles nor the safe haven of her grandparents’ ranch could erase the pain caused by Billy Crosby on that catastrophic night.

Now Billy Crosby has been granted a new trial, thanks in large part to the efforts of his son, Collin, a lawyer who has spent most of his life trying to prove his father’s innocence. As Jody lives only a few doors down from the Crosbys, she knows that sooner or later she’ll come face-to-face with the man who she believes destroyed her family.
 
What she doesn’t expect are the heated exchanges with Collin. Having grown up practically side by side in this very small town, Jody and Collin have had a long history of carefully avoiding each other’s eyes. Now Jody discovers that underneath their antagonism is a shared sense of loss that no one else could possibly understand. As she revisits old wounds, startling revelations compel her to uncover the dangerous truth about her family’s tragic past.

Engrossing, lyrical, and suspenseful, The Scent of Rain and Lightning captures the essence of small-town America—its heartfelt intimacy and its darkest secrets—where through struggle and hardship people still dare to hope for a better future. For Jody Linder, maybe even love.

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Customer Reviews

Pickard Has Herself a New Fan..........(ME!)
On a stormy night, twenty three years ago, in the rural ranching community of Rose Kansas, Hugh-Jay Linder, eldest son of the most respected family in town, is brutally murdered, his wife missing, their child now deeply disturbed...

Jody Linder has now grown, and her Uncles have come to her place, in a group, to inform her that the man that was placed in prison all those years ago is now set free and coming back to town. She's shocked, of course, and deeply disturbed at how this could possibly be so...

With this gut-wrenching piece of news, we are now thrust upon the Now, the Present, of this gripping mystery and how it affects the entire Linder family, and also the whole community of Rose, Kansas.

Life and things, as we know, are not always what they seem, or what we have always been led to believe they were. This story is a fabulous, well-written, book, with great three-dimensional character development, with both tender and also gut-wrenchingly tense interactions between people and how they have been affected, and what they believe happened all those years ago.

Today Billy Crosby is coming home, back to Rose, Kansas, from his prison confinement, and like it or not, the Linders and the entire community will now face the events, once again, that happened all those years ago. But....are they really what everyone has believed, or was it different, was it even more tragic than what everyone had thought for all those years? Nancy Pickard lets you know in a wonderfully constructed and deeply moving page turner...

I'm betting that you'll really love this great book!

~operabruin

2010-07-27 | operabruin (Portland, ME, USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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A good mystery
Jody Linder has suffered the murder of her beloved father and the disappearance of her mother since she was a small child. She has been raised by her grandparents and her uncles.

When the story opens, she has just graduated from college and is living in her family home where her father was murdered. Her uncles have come to visit and to let he know that her father's murderer, is being released from prison.

What ensues from that moment are encounters with her father's killer, more deaths and family secrets that will rend Jody's family apart.

The story keeps you guessing and the ending is a total suprise. The twist at the end was a total shock.

2010-07-23 | Bookworm (Charlotte, NC) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Disappointing Ending
We read this for book club and I found it very enjoyable until the very end. I did not see any clues to support this character as the killer and only one out of 8 in our group, had the slightest clue about the identity. One woman said it best "this isn't a mystery (clues leading to a logical conclusion) this is a drama". No mystery, no putting together clues that fit. The author got carried away in the end and really it ruined the book for me, almost like she ran out of energy, time or pages to finish the story properly. Too bad, with a good ending, it would have been an entertaining read.

2010-07-22 (ALPHARETTA, GA, US) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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A page-turning story with depth
Is it a mystery? Is it a character study? Is it literary fiction or just entertainment?

Trying to answer the above in my own mind has been difficult since I finished reading this novel yesterday. Set in tiny Rose, Kansas and featuring the Linder family (ranchers and most influential, wealthy family in the region) you get all of the above. Jody Linder's father was murdered when she was three years old and her mother disappeared that same night and has never been found. When Jody returns to Rose to teach English at the high school, her uncles arrive at her home one afternoon to inform her that the man convicted of her father's killing is being let out of jail and new trial has been ordered. Just about everyone in town is convinced he did it and even if he didn't, the guy was a trouble-maker so they don't really care.

While at the heart of the story lies the murder and the reader is constantly kept guessing about who actually did it and what actually happened to Jody's mother, there is an incredible amount of story around the people who populate this novel -- the Linder family and all their complicated relationships, Billy Crosby (the convicted murderer) and his family as well as other townspeople that surround them. The author does an excellent job of letting us get a glimpse into many different lives and see the world through their eyes. In that aspect, the novel feels much more like literary fiction than suspense/mystery.

Great character study, great sense of place, intriguing plot twists. I would recommend this to just about anyone who enjoys a well-written book and think it would particularly appeal to fans of Chris Bohjalian.

2010-07-16 | Book addict (Indiana, USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Best Book I've Read In a Long Time
I so enjoy it when a book grabs me right from the start, it happens all too seldom (I think the last time that happened was with Sarah's Key). This is a good story with distinct, well-developed characters (some you like, some you don't) and an interesting little mystery. You read it and find yourself asking "Could he have done it? Could she have done it?" When the truth was finally revealed I actually said out loud "Oh, wow!" There's plenty of discussion material here, making this a good book club choice. I went to my library and the author's other book was sitting on the shelf, that will be my next read and I will eagerly await any and all future novels!

2010-07-16 (Rhode Island) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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The Secret Ingredient Murders: A Eugenia Potter Mystery

Description

A DINNER TO DIE FOR

Summoned from her Arizona ranch to take charge of her teenage great-nephew and his twin sister, Genia Potter takes a rental on the Rhode Island coast. Old acquaintance Stanley Parker is only too happy to welcome her. And soon Genia is busily preparing for the tasting party that she and Stanley are hosting that evening at her cottage.

An avid cook and recipe collector, Stanley has already roped Genia into collaborating on The Secret Ingredient Cookbook, chock-full of Rhode Island culinary mysteries. Now is their chance to test some recipes and solicit others from each of the invited. Stanley has carefully selected six guests. And each has been asked to contribute a recipe with one secret ingredient. Genia asks no questions–until the lobster bisque is cold and all but one are present. Where is Stanley? Dead. And unlamented. Has one of the guests concocted a secret recipe for murder? Everyone has a motive. And everyone has a secret–including Genia’s troubled great-nephew, the prime suspect. . .

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Customer Reviews

What's in the stew?
Nancy Pickard's THE SECRET INGREDIENT MURDERS is the last of her efforts to continue the exploits of a character created by the late Virginia Rich. The story has complex story lines that are loosely woven together, but I found the mother's actions and concerns for her children who turned 18 during the story to be excessive. The idea of threatening a son with military school when he will be entering college doesn't fly, maybe if the son was 14 this story line might have worked.
Other than the above the plot is tight and the conclusion is satisfying.
Nash Black, author of SINS OF THE FATHER.

2010-07-05 | Troubadour (Jamestown, KY) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Eugenia Potter Series Continues to Please the Palate
Eugenia Potter was called to leave her Tucson ranch and head to Maine to help her great-nephew when he finds himself in trouble. Upon her arrival her long time friend Stanley Parker convinces Genie to help him publish a secret ingredient coockbook. The two decide to throw a small dinner party to test a few of the recipes, asking each guest to also bring a recipe with one secret ingredient.

When Stanley doesn't show up to his own party, the crowd soon discovers Stanley is dead. Genia decides to investigate the circumstances surrounding his murder, especially because her nephew is the chief suspect.

Genia soon finds that the none of area residents are saddened by his death, and now any number of people are under suspicion.

Nancy Pickard deftly continues the Eugenia Potter culinary mystery series. Her writing seems much more relaxed in this book, and flows well for an easy and enjoyable read.

It isn't easy to assume another authors writing style and voice, but Pickard has accomplished that and more as she has thrilled Eugenia Potter fans with three more stories than they would otherwise have enjoyed if she had not stepped up to the plate.


The Secret Ingredient Murders: A Eugenia Potter Mystery

2009-04-09 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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An Antique Apple Saves The Secrets of Spring
This tale opens from the third person perspective of Stanley Parker, a diehard, leathery old man who's feeling, yet not succumbing to deterioration in every skeletal line, angle, and joint, as he inches painfully toward his motorbike. The pivotal character for the story, this spicy, elderly man grows rapidly in the reader's mind. He alternates between the fading sunlight of Genia's view of him, and the spotlights on shadows he has forced into the opinions of others, as various characters expose facets of this archetypal paragon of, is it elemental evil or situational good ...

Cross generational perspectives are drawn with amazing realism here, especially as exposed in the relationships between Jason, a teenage male, and Parker; and in the same complex kid's exchanges with Genia (his aunt), parents, friends, towns people. In fact this plot has a fairly large collection of characters with multiple-unique-relationships; each connection has fluid depth, with bonus intrigue in unanticipated, fluky foibles.

Nancy Pickard seems to have the knack which Virginia Rich had and instilled into Genia, of exposing the flickering nuances between the bright spots and dark alleys in any persona. I continued wondering, throughout the novel, "Is this a good or bad guy? If he's a bad guy, he's not too far off the edge of redemption."

In this uncanny awareness of the fluctuating shift of good and evil, Pickard fertilizes another of the captivating qualities of Genia, a generous wisdom, which Pickard has weeded and pruned around Virginia Rich's rooted and sprouted character seeds. It's intriguing indeed to observe close up the fleshing out by a younger female author a character and setting initiated by an older female author who has passed on, through her own death, a fictional character strong enough to be worthy of continuance.

A theme of this type of character continuance seems to be rooting and flourishing beyond Eugenia Potter, considering the current situations of Archy McNally, and Nero Wolfe, at least. Isn't it interesting that each of these diehard, fictional characters has been inspired, allowed, even encouraged, to jazz up their plots by wallowing in the sensual ambiance of culinary persuasions?

Is food in a novel akin to food for the soul; does this nurturing on paper feed a fictional persona well enough to survive, develop, and sell long past his creator's passage?

Does this budding concept (now flowering and fruiting) somehow expose the secret ingredient for cooking up the creme of the gourmet in fiction, handing readers a silver platter of solved mysteries of life and death? Fresh fruit and creme, with a few edible flower blossoms tanging the "soup"; that would be one of my favorite desserts.

Returning to the reality of reading, I'll report that in Nancy Pickard's SECRET INGREDIENT MURDERS' the fast paced build up to denouement was intensely satisfying and insightful (especially for an old lady romping realistically to the rescue, then being caught dead-handed, then delayed into an unwelcome exchange with the culprit). The conclusion and wind down were inspiring as well.

Read it and reek of delicate-snow-fall drifting on peach blossoms.

Read it and reap the essence of springtime cracking the chrysalis of winter.

Writing with a contented, Chess-Cat-grin, gardening a ten-ton Wish List at Amazon.com, possibly knowing something you don't, but soon will,

Linda G. Shelnutt

2005-04-07 | Author (Hotchkiss, CO USA) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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A superb entry in the Eugneia Patter mystery series.
I wouldn't go so far as to compare Eugenia Potter with Jessica Fletcher. Potter is too laid back for that. But I do think that for a rather leasurely Cozy, this book is a fine read. Enjoy it for what it is and move on to the next title on your reading list. If you don't feel like spending money on this novel check it out at the local public library. You will still like reading it.

2002-12-16 | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 5

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Good Book
I thought this was a good book. It starts out with a missing man who is then found dead. Who killed him.? There were many who hated him.

The book totally keeps you guessing and the ending is great.

It did not deserve only one star. It was a good book.

2002-11-24 | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 4

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