This book was hard to follow. The author would skip from one storyline to another on the same page which made the flow of the book seem uneven. The story lacks focus and suspense and seems to get lost in the complicated plot and narrations of the multiple characters.
There were some aspects I liked. Each chapter starts and ends within the same day which is a unique concept. The author provides great detail about events, but these details do not bring any added insight to the story or the characters. At certain points I found myself skimming and wishing McMillan would just get to the point!
The main characters are a nurse named Narcissa Powers and former slave/herbalist named Judah Daniel. The two join forces to search for a mysteriously missing Confederate soldier whose mother Narcissa meets while caring for wounded soldiers in Ward 27. While there she is drawn to Sgt. Smith. Suffering from a gunshot wound in battle,and who had been treated in a home before his condition began to grow worse. His wounded leg had to be amputated, but not before tetanus had set in.
We are also introduced John Chapman and Susy Reynolds. Reynolds starts off the story by taking a letter, written by Henry Wise and given to Jefferson Davis , out of a fire place and sneaking it out. Later while making his daily deliveries of baked good, Chapman comes across a baby boy someone has abandoned in the graveyard at St. John’s church who he ends up turning over to Judah. She then begins a quest to find the mother of the baby who Chapman has named Moses.
While Narcissa is recovering from her illness she find the body of a dark skinned black man dressed in rough clothing near where John Chapman found the baby the day before. It is speculated that the man is connected to the baby somehow. After learning about the letter Susy had taken from Jefferson Davis, Narcissa begins to believe the dead man and perhaps the baby’s missing mother had discovered this secret and were killed to protect it.
At the climax of the story, we find out that the dead man, the missing mother, and the baby are all cousins of Susy. She had been planning on helping them escape to the North. However when the information about the letter was discovered by the young solider that Narcissa had believed to be dead, he killed the husband thinking the family was trying to go North to place the mysterious letter in the hands of the Union.
I was glad when the connection was finally made, but at that point the only reason I continued reading was to see what happened to the letter. I commend McMillan for her research about the Civil War. History buffs would enjoy the information provided about battles and tactics.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Last Scene Alive by: Charlaine Harris 2002 Library Crime and Librarian Detectives
I did not even know Harris wrote mysteries, but I had read several of her Sookie Stackhouse novels! I really liked this book. It is set in a small town in Georgia and our main character is a librarian named Roe Teagarden. Roe is still mourning the loss of her husband Martin.
Roe's world is turned upside down when her former boyfriend returns to Lawrenceton to film the screen version of his best selling novel. The novel is based on the story of Roe and Robin (the author) solving a string of murders committed in this small town. Roe is just beginning to live down the events; all she wants to be left in her own misery.
Roe does not want anything to do with the filming of the movie, but it seems everyone in town has gotten a job working with the crew. At first when Robin calls she hangs up on him and refuses to go to the set. In another interesting twist her stepson, Barrett, is in town working on the film. Barrett feels Roe married his father for his money (because Martin was 15 years older than Roe). Barrett is beyond nasty to Roe, however; she is there for Barrett when the leading lady in the movie shows up dead. Barrett had been intimate with Celia the night before.
Robin and Roe reconnect with each other and soon are kissing like teenagers. Robin shows Roe how she has been living in the past and making themselves miserable. Robin used to date the actress in the film and after her murder he wonders if Roe is next. One afternoon while leaving the library someone came up behind Roe and knocks her to the ground (she was more upset that she ruined the flowers she was carrying from Robin). Robin suspected a young woman who worked for the catering company who was providing food for the film. Tracy was a girl with a history of mental illness. She had stalked another author before Robin. One afternoon Tracy entered Roe's home when she held a knife to Roe's maid. In a struggle Tracy cuts Roe's arm and then falls on her own knife. Tracy admits she has been stalking Robin and that she had struck Celia in the head with her Emmy.
In another turn of events....the blow delivered to Celia's head with her Emmy was not what killed her. Before her death, Celia had gone to the library and checked out books. When the books were returned the secretary at the library started acting very strange and then she disappeared. The secretary was not who she said she was. It turns out she was the younger sister of a radical Black Panther member who made bombs during the sixties. Patricia was not who she seemed to be but she redeemed herself.
One night when alone in the library, one of the crew members from the employee entrance. Roe told the cameraman the library was closed and he would have to come back. He insisted that he had left something in one of the books Celia had checked out. The letter he was searching for blew to Roe's feet. She picked it up and discovered he was Celia's father. Celia had Huntington's disease and was beginning to show symptoms. Will had watched Celia's mother die after losing all her dignity from the disease. So Will drugged Celia and then suffocated her with a pillow. He thought it would be better for her to be remembered as the actress who died tragically rather than losing all control of her body. Roe knew too much now and he could not let her leave except.....the radical secretary had come back to the library to get something from her desk. She saw what was happening and struck Will in the back of the head with a gun. Roe made a pact to never say anything because she had saved her life. Roe takes blood and puts it on a corner of desk to make it look like Will hit his head during the struggle.
Roe ends up moving on with her life and is happy with Robin. I liked the twists and turns of the novel and I also lived the romantic aspect.
Roe's world is turned upside down when her former boyfriend returns to Lawrenceton to film the screen version of his best selling novel. The novel is based on the story of Roe and Robin (the author) solving a string of murders committed in this small town. Roe is just beginning to live down the events; all she wants to be left in her own misery.
Roe does not want anything to do with the filming of the movie, but it seems everyone in town has gotten a job working with the crew. At first when Robin calls she hangs up on him and refuses to go to the set. In another interesting twist her stepson, Barrett, is in town working on the film. Barrett feels Roe married his father for his money (because Martin was 15 years older than Roe). Barrett is beyond nasty to Roe, however; she is there for Barrett when the leading lady in the movie shows up dead. Barrett had been intimate with Celia the night before.
Robin and Roe reconnect with each other and soon are kissing like teenagers. Robin shows Roe how she has been living in the past and making themselves miserable. Robin used to date the actress in the film and after her murder he wonders if Roe is next. One afternoon while leaving the library someone came up behind Roe and knocks her to the ground (she was more upset that she ruined the flowers she was carrying from Robin). Robin suspected a young woman who worked for the catering company who was providing food for the film. Tracy was a girl with a history of mental illness. She had stalked another author before Robin. One afternoon Tracy entered Roe's home when she held a knife to Roe's maid. In a struggle Tracy cuts Roe's arm and then falls on her own knife. Tracy admits she has been stalking Robin and that she had struck Celia in the head with her Emmy.
In another turn of events....the blow delivered to Celia's head with her Emmy was not what killed her. Before her death, Celia had gone to the library and checked out books. When the books were returned the secretary at the library started acting very strange and then she disappeared. The secretary was not who she said she was. It turns out she was the younger sister of a radical Black Panther member who made bombs during the sixties. Patricia was not who she seemed to be but she redeemed herself.
One night when alone in the library, one of the crew members from the employee entrance. Roe told the cameraman the library was closed and he would have to come back. He insisted that he had left something in one of the books Celia had checked out. The letter he was searching for blew to Roe's feet. She picked it up and discovered he was Celia's father. Celia had Huntington's disease and was beginning to show symptoms. Will had watched Celia's mother die after losing all her dignity from the disease. So Will drugged Celia and then suffocated her with a pillow. He thought it would be better for her to be remembered as the actress who died tragically rather than losing all control of her body. Roe knew too much now and he could not let her leave except.....the radical secretary had come back to the library to get something from her desk. She saw what was happening and struck Will in the back of the head with a gun. Roe made a pact to never say anything because she had saved her life. Roe takes blood and puts it on a corner of desk to make it look like Will hit his head during the struggle.
Roe ends up moving on with her life and is happy with Robin. I liked the twists and turns of the novel and I also lived the romantic aspect.
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