When she was a teenager,
Kim Lyons had seen something because of which she accused two of the town’s most
prominent and influential citizens, one of them her own stepfather, of being involved in a
young girl’s brutal murder. Even after the men were absolved of any guilt, Kim
refused to retract her statement and this only made the small town of Cypress resent her
more. Unable to bear it, she went away and tried to forget it all in a big city.
But in her heart she
remained a hick town, redneck girl. Which is why when Kim gets the upsetting news that her
grandmother, who’d remained behind in Cypress, had died and left to Kim all her
worldly possessions which included the town’s only bar, a pet pig and some debt, she
cannot help but return to Cypress. And she’s determined enough to stay even when she
finds that in Cypress memories run long and deep, and people go out of their way to make
her life miserable.
Surprisingly enough, the
only person to help Kim, albeit reluctantly, is her former stepbrother and worst critic,
Zell Macpherson. Feelings of mutual attraction rapidly develop between them, and this only
complicates an already complex situation. But it gets real tricky when Kim suspects a
second murder has taken place. She now faces the hardest dilemma of her life –
whether to make her suspicions public, repeat the past and thus lose everything dear to
her a second time in her life; or keep quiet and likely become the diabolical killer’s
next victim. Either way, she’s doomed.
This latest Tina
Wainscott book is a maelstrom of secrets, deceptions, lies and shadows. Set in the
accommodatingly eerie and authentically portrayed dangerous swamplands of a small hick
town in the Florida Everglades, the story doesn’t lack either cold or warm blooded
killers, who roam in the relative security of the darkness and the jungle, with no one the
wiser and where no one is safe. As a result, the book is an very suspenseful one, both
plot-wise and atmospherically. The author skillfully blends betrayals and dilemmas, both
past and present, and leads the readers through a dizzying maze of countless suspects and
myriad motives. The central character of Kim is faced with making some tough choices over
the course of the story, and her constantly determined nature in spite of unfavorable
odds, is admirable indeed. The déjà vu-ish kind of dilemma which she’s ultimately
faced with, along with some prediction of doom and disaster from a psychic side character,
lends an otherworldly touch to this already-eerie tale.
The
dialogue sings with the lilt of the local intonation and the close-minded small town
atmosphere is also accurately captured. The intricacies of gator farming are described in
some authentic detail in this book. There is also some romance and lots of sexual tension.
The only sore point of this entire thrilling tale is the ease with which Kim and Zell
completely ignore the mutual resentment which had once alienated them, even though Kim
doesn’t forget the other town people who, along with Zell, had never believed in her.
Despite this incongruous fact, the book remains an unforgettable and thrilling read.
Reviewed By Rashmi Srinivas
for The Road to Romance
November 12, 2003 |
