Published by Harvest House. January 2008
ISBN: 978-0-7369-1879-4
This author has published two previous series—the Million Dollar and the Smart Chick Mysteries—both cast in sort of a lighter tone. With this novel, she has turned to a more serious and substantive theme, perhaps indicating a turn toward a more serious bent.
Set in the Louisiana Bayou area, the story brings us Miranda Miller, an art restorer at a Manhattan museum, the 32-year-old mother of a five-year-old daughter and wife of a promising architect. One day, she is beseeched to travel to the scene of her childhood home (which she left when she was five) by a dying Cajun caretaker who wishes to impart secret information to her before he passes away. Miranda has no memory of her first five years. The “aunt” who raised her tries to discourage Miranda, fearing the consequences of opening old wounds.
Thus lies a strange tale involving truths about the past, her family, her inheritance of the estate on which she grew up and most of all, Cajun history. It is a tale well told, with a heart-warming look at the foibles of human nature and the quest for understanding and the love of the Lord. Recommended.
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Theodore Feit