Laura
Shore had mixed feelings about returning to her Cape Cod home for her father’s
funeral. Having grown up as part of the dirt-poor and notorious Shore family, and feeling
set apart from the rest of the town people for as long as she can remember due to her
family’s propensity for violence, she’d happily and as soon as possible left her
past behind and carved a very successful life for herself on the opposite coast. Now,
after many years, the three Shore siblings have gathered together and when their younger
sister Corinne asks them to spare her just one month out of their lives to help her turn
around the failing Shore nursery, Laura and brother Snack find themselves pitching in
against their own inclinations.
Bitter memories keep
swamping the siblings, but their mutual bickering cannot hide their ingrained love for
each other. Taking charge as usual, Laura throws herself whole-heartedly into the venture
and in the meantime, she keeps meeting old acquaintances like the vaguely creepy old Miss
Widdich, and then there is Kendall Barclay with whom she’d once shared a traumatic
past. But now the rich and geeky Ken has grown up to be a rich and handsome hunk, and when
he shows signs of being interested in her, Laura is unable to decide if he truly means it.
But before anything can come of it, a most shocking and gruesome discovery is made on
their property and once again, the Shores come under police scrutiny. Is the past
repeating itself or is there a murderer on the loose?
Ms. Stockenberg has a
reputation for creating stories of small-town romance tinged with suspense, and this is
the case with this superb book too. The story is simple and the suspense is tolerable, and
there is nothing greatly surprising about this book. What distinguishes it is the author’s
immense capacity to invoke even the simplest of incidents with deep emotion and even
deeper meaning from the various characters involved. Whether it’s the small-town
atmosphere or the feeling of alienation which the Shores feel in the town they’ve
lived in all their lives, Ms. Stockenberg creates a rich tapestry of complex emotions and
the way it is all simply brought out only make the effect sincere and yet powerful. As
mentioned before, the romance in the story is compounded by some suspense which is
tolerable and while not being overtly difficult to solve, the mystery remains interesting.
The story is more the sum of its numerous parts and is guaranteed to hold the readers
immersed and interested. Fulfilling.
Reviewed by Rashmi
Srinivas for The Road to Romance
Aug 25, 2003 |
