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Reviewed by Jeff Needle
10/13/2005 4:46:05 PM
Shandra Covington is a reporter for the Deseret Morning News. Hers isn't an exciting job, but she enjoys being a part of the world of journalism.Single and slight in build, she's devoted her life to her craft.
When she receives news of the passing of her grandmother (affectionatelyc alled Gam), she feels an emptiness that just won't go away. Her father had abandoned them early in her life, and her mother passed away some time soon after that. Her only brother and she are estranged.
To her surprise, she learns that Gam had never sold an old house she owned and lived in early in life. Gam had long ago moved in with Shandra and her brother, to help raise and nurture the children. Everyone assumed she had sold the house. But not so.
Shandra is left to supervise the sale of the house. But when she arrives, she's in for several surprises. Gam's original furniture is still there. Everything was left intact, but is now covered in a thick layer of dust. And then, as she's poking around, she comes upon the body of a dead man, someone who's been dead a long time.
When she reports this to the police, they enter the house and find, not an old corpse, but a new one. Shandra is suspected of the murder and is arrested. Luckily she has an old friend on the Salt Lake City police force who is able to pull some strings and get her out of jail. All the while, there seems to be a romantic relationship brewing between Shandra and the sheriff's deputy, Clay.
Shandra realizes whose body *she* had found -- her grandfather's. And there are lots of dark secrets about the man, things she might not have known had she not come to close the house.
Without giving away any more of the book, I have to say, there are more plot twists, more surprises here than there have been in any LDS novel I've read in years. You really need a scorecard to keep up with who is a good guy and who is not. Every time I thought I had it figured out, some new twist would come our way, keeping me guessing until the very end.
And, arrogant as I am, I was sure I knew how it would all end up. Nope, I was dead wrong in nearly every aspect. Utterly unpredictable, always exciting.
Savage has written two earlier books, but this appears to be the first in a series about Shandra Covington. I'm anxious to see what comes next. While telling the story, Savage manages to weave interesting characters into the narrative, with not a one to spare. Everyone matters in this story, but mostly in ways you wouldn't predict. One of my favorites is a waitress in a local eatery named Nan. A mental picture emerged of Flo in Mel's Diner (remember "Alice"?), and I had to giggle as I matched Nan's narrative to Flo's breezy manner.
Ostensibly the book is about discovering who committed this murder. But it goes deeper, becomes more complex. Here are Shandra's own words:
Maybe the truth was that I hadn't come to sell my grandmother's house
at all. Maybe I'd come in search of a part of myself. Outwardly I'd
been focused on a set agenda: go through the house, take some pictures,
sign with the realtor, and leave. But inside I'd been half-hoping I
might find some clues about Gam's past, my mother's past, and *my*
past...
What I was discovering about my heritage wasn't pretty. It made me
question my already confused understanding of who I really was. The
decision I had to make was either to leave while there were still
unanswered questions or to take the risk that the truth was only going
to get uglier. (p. 96-7)
Introspection can be painful, as Shandra quickly learns. But she's determined to find the truth no matter what it costs.
I have only one criticism. The last third of the book has at least a dozen typos. This is very unusual -- the quality of Covenant Communications books is usually very high, the writing carefully edited and proof-read. Someone dropped the ball here. But the typos don't really detract from the excitement of the book.
If you like a good mystery, pick this one up.
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