I just finished the first book in a series titled "The Sophie Trace Trilogy"
My dad blessed me with this series and I plan on passing it on to one of my sisters to enjoy.
Once again, I hit gold! It's Christian fiction and it's good! Very suspenseful and moves along quickly. A real page-turner, which I like for light reading.
STORY SUMMARY
Brill Jessup is a wife, mom, and full time police officer. She and her family have just moved from Memphis, TN to the small community of Sophie Trace, TN. She is now police chief and the first female to hold that position in this town. She is a pro at finding clues to crimes.
Her family life is a shambles, however. Her husband, Kurt, owns a chain of stores and does most of the home management and care for their 9 year old daughter, Emily. Their older children, Ryan and Vanessa, are away at colleges and rarely come home. In fact, they still haven't been to the new house in Sophie Trace. Part of the reason is the conflict going on between mom and dad.
Kurt had an affair several months earlier, and has asked God's forgiveness, as well as the forgiveness of Brill. Brill, however, is holding on to her anger which is turning into bitterness. And THAT is the real enemy in her life.
Kurt struggles to let God redeem the stupidest mistake of his life and Brill is hiding behind her badge and her bitterness.
Meanwhile, before they are fully unpacked in their new home, people start disappearing in their new hometown! Lots of people, including a little boy.
What makes things complicated, is the local legend that many residents believe. They believe that there are "red shadows", which are the spirits of the Cherokee who once lived on that land. Many townspeople think the red shadows are taking the humans. Meanwhile, a young Hispanic tween is found dead on the street. Are these crimes related? and what is going on with the graffiti found on many landmarks in town?
Brill not only has to stop this real human enemy who is kidnapping local people, she also has to stop the enemy of bitterness eating at her soul.
Will she be able to do this?
MY THOUGHTS
This was my first Kathy Hermon book and I had read some reviews from Susanne at Living to Tell the Story where I first learned of this author. Susanne's reviews made me want to check out a couple of the author's novels. I'm glad my dad had this series! This first novel is good. I plan on reading the other 2 later this month.
However, it has soooo many editing errors!! I found it to be very distracting as I am very much a perfectionist when it comes to grammar and spelling mistakes. There were even whole words left out of sentences. The editor did NOT do a good job with this book which will lower my rating score. There's no excuse for a publishing company to publish a novel before being thoroughly edited!
The story, overall, is very suspenseful and interesting, which I like. I like when books share something about Native Americans and their history. I've always been drawn to books with that type of history in them.
The ending is a bit annoying to me because it is just a tad bit too "perfect". Brill has not wanted to forgive her husband and deal with her soul issues and yet all of a sudden, because of the crime being solved, she is now realizing that she does love him.
Well, in real life, that just doesn't happen, does it? I know some acquaintances, and even one friend, who have been through the sin of adultery and their bitterness and anger just doesn't go away that quickly. Plus, even when the person does take it to God, there are always repercussions left....much healing must take place in the marriage, especially with trust and abandonment issues. The author does ask some deep questions at the end of the book (discussion questions) regarding Romans 12: 21 which was the over-lying theme to the story "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good".
Those of us who have experienced betrayal on some level (and adultery seems to be a major betrayal!) will have feelings of anger which is understandable and even justified. However, the author took the freedom to have Kurt be the one to overcome his own evil (his sin of adultery) by applying this Scriptural principle. And that makes the character of Kurt so lovable. Brill is someone whom I admire as a character yet also found myself loathing. I think it's because I don't have much patience for people who can't seem to overcome bitterness. Christ wants us to live fully and to fully live!! and to do so, we MUST overcome evil with good. Good always triumphs in the end. That is easy for me to say though because I haven't had to go through the issue of adultery in my own marriage. So I don't really know what it is like. I do like how the author didn't have them get a divorce...I like how she spun the marriage plot...makes it very believable since I think this would happen in most Christian marriages who are dealing with adultery.
I loved how the author brought out redemption, forgiveness and the neighborliness/kindness of the surrounding community.
In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 14 and older.
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this an 8. This is mainly due to the MANY editing mistakes.
3 comments:
This is the book I am missing out of the series. Bummer about the editing mistakes. I HATE that. I always wonder how those can be missed. Anyway I don't remember that about the next two, maybe they smartened up. I loved the next series connected to this one which I just finished and I heard the first book in the 3rd series is now out. Glad you liked it!
Susanne, when my sisters are done with it maybe i could send it to you if you want it?
That's sweet of you Faith!
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