story craft

Genre: Christian Mystery and Suspense

Format: Paperback

My rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Cautions:

Main themes: 

Main characters:

Favorite quote: “Horrible as that was, no one remembers the smaller battles. The ones we fought for years, long after the bombs stopped falling.”

Review:

With insight, gentleness, and honor for those who’ve felt the depths of grief and longing for a return to normal, Wright composes yet another truly inspiring tale of mystery, family, and love.

Through Imogene Grayson (our historical heroine) and Aggie Dunkirk (our modern gal), we see the intricate journey of grief—the way it sucks you in and erodes the edges of your soul, keeping you from remembering the good because it’s all just so mixed up.

Amid the drama of murder and flooded graves and family feuds, war and trauma and love and loss, Wright guides the reader to press into God instead of pushing Him away. We see it in Oliver “Ollie” Schneider’s gentle, steady presence and concern for Imogene, and we see it in Collin O’Shaughnessy’s kindness to an eccentric old woman, Mumsie, as well as his compassion and loyalty to Aggie.

We walk alongside the characters as they wrestle with God, with their honest questions, their sadness, their anger, and even their confusion about how to move forward when what they loved would be forever unmoved—encased in earth and memories.

My own grief has often resembled theirs, and I found myself tearing up as they wept, reminding myself that God brings hope even as I cry my tears. Years past now, memories bring smiles and just the burning sensation that says I might cry. I believe Wright finesses her words into an accurate and beautiful picture of life and helps us breathe a little easier, knowing we’re not the only ones to walk this way, to have these questions, to hold to these hopes.

Throughout the book, sweet romances build between our heroines and their beaus, but as always, they aren’t the focus of the story. The romance isn’t overwhelming. Sometimes I wish I knew what the heroes were thinking, but I love the way Wright uses facial expressions, habits, and skillfully placed words to give us the barest hint of their hearts.

And now that I’ve written six paragraphs on what I love, I guess I’ll be moving on too.

My take:

Time doesn’t heal every wound completely. But it can give us space to fall in love again, to lean into God for comfort, and to find our way home no matter how lost we feel.