Tour Review - In The Shadow of Revenge by Patricia Hale

In the Shadow of Revenge

by Patricia Hale

on Tour September 1-30, 2013

Book Details:

Genre: Mystery/Suspense Published by: Carina Press Publication Date: July 15, 2013 Number of Pages: 280 ISBN: 978-14268-9584-5 Purchase Links:

Synopsis:

Everybody thought brilliant Cecily would leave dead-end Miller's Falls for something better. But a two-decades-old tragedy locks her in place. Few understand the fierce bond that Cecily and Amelia share with Hilary, who was assaulted one summer as the two other girls watched helplessly. It's a bond of love and guilt…and a desire for vengeance that cuts clear to the bone. So Assistant DA Cecily Minos waits, eager to see the guy in her courtroom. When Amelia meets a man who has the tattoo the girls remember seeing that day, they think they've finally caught a break. But the police refuse to reopen the case, and it's up to Cecily and Amelia to pursue their suspect. Their investigation soon uncovers secrets best left buried. But the law is slow, and they've waited long enough for revenge…
  
My Thoughts:

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel by Patricia Hale and felt it was a very fast paced story with little to no lull in the action or plot development at all.
In The Shadow of Revenge contained very likeable, strong characters and a believable storyline that kept me guessing as to what was going to happen next.
The faults and the habits of each character after experiencing a traumatic childhood event together, as well as how they each developed and moved on with their lives was quite interesting and I also enjoyed the small supernatural element that was contained within the story. I do wish that this element had been explored a little bit further though as I felt that it didn't really add to the story in the way that it could have.
This book was a definite page turner and kept my interest until the very end. I did have a little issue with some of the constant secrets and hiding of information that went on a lot to supposedly protect one another, but this was only a very small gripe which didn't detract from the story at all.
I'll definitely be looking out for more from Patricia Hale in the future.  

Read an excerpt:

My lungs were tight as fists and the voice inside my head said run, but my legs couldn’t be trusted. Standing up wouldn’t have gotten me out of there, it would only have drawn attention to the pee that was warm in my shorts and it might have gotten Hilary killed if he was serious about running that blade across her neck. All of a sudden the man stood and keeping his back to us, lowered the kerchief and put a cigarette in his mouth. Hilary never moved though I saw her blink. She was looking at something far away like she was somewhere else entirely and I hoped that that was true so she wouldn’t have to know what happened. He pulled his baseball hat low over his face the same way it’d been when we first climbed into the railcar and without ever looking at us he jumped to the ground and walked away. “Stay here,” I’d told Amelia, though I knew she wasn’t going anywhere. And I ran. I ran faster than I’d ever run not even caring about the pee burning the inside of my legs. I’d taken the woods instead of the path, running in the opposite direction from the way he’d gone. My legs were scraped and bleeding by the time I’d reached the road and the stitch in my side had made it almost impossible to breath, but I just kept thinking of Hilary laying there and I couldn’t stop until I was pulling open my own back door. I ran into the kitchen and through the house until I found my mother kneeling beside her bed, rosary beads draped around her prayerful hands like a spider web. I stood in the doorway and looked at her, imagined wrapping my arms around her neck and her drawing me in, holding me. I imagined feeling safe. She glanced at me standing there then dismissed me with a nod of her head, knee deep in Jesus. I turned and ran for the telephone.

Author Bio:

Patricia Hale is a graduate of the MFA program at Goddard College in Vermont. She is a member of Sister’s in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, NH Writer’s Project and Maine Writer’s and Publisher’s Alliance. Her essays and articles have appeared in New England literary magazines and the anthology, My Heart’s First Steps. When not writing, she enjoys hiking with her dogs and kayaking on the lakes near her home. Patricia lives in New Hampshire with her husband and two German shepherds.

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