Title: THE ABDUCTION OF MARY ROSE
Author: Joan Hall
Hovey
Publisher: BWLPP
Genre: Suspense, 240 pages
ISBN-10: 1466337338
ISBN-13: 978-1466337336
Price: Kindle eBook: $2.99 Print Book: $11.99
Publisher website address: http://bwlpp.com/mysteries.php
I have been a fan of Joan Hall Hovey since I read CHILL WATERS last
year. After that, I reached for each and every release with the same excitement
I do for new books by bestselling authors like Dean Koontz. And with THE
ABDUCTION OF MARY ROSE, Ms. Hovey follows in the same tradition of grabbing her
readers by the throat and never letting go until the final pages bring the
story to its ultimate resolution.
It’s not so much the de facto smooth writing skills, or the vivid
scene-setting that makes you feel as if you are right there with the protagonist, or the wonderful,
natural-sounding dialog, or the edge-of-your-seat suspense, or the wild chase
scenes that keep you up into the wee hours of morning with your heart
pounding...No, I expect all of these elements in this author’s books. What
shines so brightly above and beyond these great traits, however, is Ms. Hovey’s
characters. Rich with back-story, as real as the person sitting next to you on
the couch or in your office, these people leap off the page and invade your
mind, lingering for weeks or months afterwards.
In THE ABDUCTION OF MARY ROSE, you’ll immediately begin to root for
Naomi Waters, a twenty-eight year old woman who records audio books for a
living. Bright, loving, and a dedicated daughter, her story starts at her dying
mother’s bedside.
Now, imagine losing your only parent to a devastating disease. On the
day of the funeral, now imagine discovering that she wasn’t your mother, that you were adopted. With that comes the
knowledge that the photo on your dresser of your long dead military hero father
was fake, too. Add to that the sudden unveiling of all this through your
mother’s obituary, written by the nasty sister of the only mother you ever
knew, and you have the springboard from which this riveting story moves
forward.
When Naomi starts to dig into her birthmother’s history, she’s horrified
to discover that poor Mary Rose was only sixteen when she was abducted,
brutally raped and left for dead. The Micmac native girl lived long enough in a
coma to give birth to Naomi, then died shortly thereafter. The case was never
solved, and for nearly thirty years the rapist and his cohort have lived free among
the local townspeople. One elderly witness saw two men take her back then, but
couldn’t react fast enough to save the poor girl when the abduction happened.
Ms. Hovey’s scene of the abduction broke my heart. I’m still upset about
it, and still feel ragged hatred toward the men who took her, used her, and
threw her away. I am filled with sorrow for Mary Rose’s dear, sweet
grandfather, who lost his only family member to violence of the worst sort. I’m
not sure I would have survived such a loss, to tell the truth.
Yet through all of this tension and horrible upheaval, Naomi vows to dig
into the past, catch her mother’s killer or killers, and bring them to justice.
With skills that rival some of the best detectives, born of a passion to avenge
her mother and a close spiritual connection with Mary Rose, she steadfastly
makes progress in spite of the local police’s lack of interest.
In Joan Hall Hovey’s inimitable style, she ratchets up the suspense and
fear as the story unfolds. Naomi goes public, gains the interest of the locals,
and in particular one very brutal and nasty man, her mother’s rapist and her
biological father.
The problem is, this man has no conscience, and only wants to destroy
the DNA evidence of his misdeed that lies within Naomi’s cells. The final
scenes will have you rooting for Naomi and clinging to the edge of your seat.
They are brilliantly rendered.
When you buy this book–and I highly recommend you do–you need to set
aside time to read. Start it on a Friday night or Saturday morning, or you’ll
be calling your boss to take a vacation day. Yes, it’s that good.
***
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