Title: One Deadly Sin
Author: Annie Solomon
Pages: 416
Publisher: Forever (May 1, 2009) (Hachette Book Group)
Genre: Fiction / Romantic Suspense
Edition: Paperback - Many thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy to review as part of this blog tour!
Perfect for : Personal reading, anyone who loves romantic suspense, twists and turns, strong characters
In a nutshell: The brilliant writing in One Deadly Sin by Annie Solomon kept me on the edge of my seat, holding my breath (and crossing my fingers for the sparks flying between Edie and Sheriff Holt Drennen) as I tried to figure out the mystery behind what happened to Edie Swann's father, and who was trying to keep the past from being exposed. There was not one moment of boredom in this fast-paced romantic mystery, which I didn't want to end!
Extended Review: After losing her father as a young girl, and her mother a few years later, Edie Swann leaves the small town of Redbud for the big city, changing her name in an attempt to distance herself from the loss she feels. As a young woman, she returns to the small town in an attempt to gain revenge against a list of people she believes are behind the death of her father. After visiting her fathers grave, marked with a large black angel/gargoyle, she begins anonymously leaving tiny black angels for the people on her revenge list, and they begin to die, leading her to believe that there is someone else who doesn't want the past being remembered! The people of the town turn against her as she becomes a suspect, and then a target - will she be the next to die?
In the meantime, she has bumped into the town sheriff, Holt Drennen, a hunky single father who is trying to keep the town a safe place, and trying to hide his interest in the towns most recent newcomer. While all the evidence seems to implicate Edie as a prime suspect, he simply doesn't believe she is killing the people of the town.
Both Edie and Holt are trying to find out how the dead men knew each other in an attempt to find out why they are being killed before someone else dies. As Edie becomes a target herself, Holt must hide her and try to track down the real killer.
Characters: Edie is a strong young woman filled with purpose and spunk. She charms Holt Drennen's young daughter, becoming a temptation to him at the same time. Holt is a man filled with strengths of his own, and he is on a mission to keep his town (and Edie) safe!
Story-Line: The story is focused on an old tragedy, and is filled with plenty of romantic tension, and enough twists and turns to keep you guessing until the end!
Readability: A great read! Fun, engrossing and easy to read and enjoy!
Overall: This page-turner is brilliantly written, and will engage the reader in adventure, passion and suspense from beginning to end. If you enjoy a little romantic tension, a good mystery, and a great story filled with twists and turns, be sure to pick up a copy of this book!
From the publisher:
COMING HOME IS MURDER...
Revenge. Edie Swann has hungered for it since she fled her hometown as a little girl. Now she's returned, ready for payback. Armed with a list of names, she leaves each one a chilling sign that they have blood on their hands. Her father's blood. What happens next turns her own blood cold: one by one, the men she's targeted start dying.
Sheriff Holt Drennen knows Edie is hiding something. She has a haunted look in her eyes and a defiant spirit, yet he can't believe she's a murderer. As the body count rises and all evidence points to Edie, Holt is torn between the town he's sworn to protect and the woman he's come to desire. But nothing is what it seems. Long buried secrets begin to surface, and a killer won't be satisfied until the sins of the past are paid in full--this time with Edie's blood.
Excerpt from Annie Solomon's website:
She came at night, creeping into town like a shade. Darkness suited her. It evoked the past, that black hole of fury and mystery. Recapturing it required dark arts.
There was irony, arriving at midnight. Pulling into the cemetery at the traditional witching hour, leaving the street lights behind. She inched forward, navigating through stars, those pinpricks of light. And memory.
The stars were out that night, too, long ago when the doorbell clanged and shattered the silence into before and after. She’d heard it through her bedroom door when she should have been asleep. But who could sleep with her father accused and missing, her mother an inconsolable machine of tears?
She remembered the darkness through her window, the moon a sly smile in the sky, the black a background against which the grown-up voices rumbled below.
And then her mother’s scream.
Unhuman, animal, a throat ripped out, a universe hacked and splattered into pieces. A sound so feral the memory of it still gave her shivers.
No one screamed now. Nothing broke the silence but the hum of her wheels rolling down the winding cemetery road, a path between graves.
At last she slowed. Stopped. Turned off the engine.
And picked her way over the dead to her destination. The last thing she’d seen in this town. The last image of home. Now, it was the first thing she’d see on her return.
The black angel.
She swept a penlight over the sculpture. Remembered the gargoyle face seen with ten-year-old eyes. Twenty years later she saw the face was meant to be kind. But it was overshadowed by massive wings that spanned up and out, looming over the headstone like a vampire bat.
There had been hot arguments over that angel. Even banished to her room, she could hear her mother and her aunt fighting.
“It’s frightening. Unholy,” her aunt had said. “A mark against his name.”
“They put the mark there, not me.”
“They who?”
“I don’t know!”
“You can’t do this, Evelyn.”
“It’s done.” Her mother’s voice was harsh and strained. “It stays until the stain is gone. Until I can prove it.”
Until I can prove it.
Poor mother.
There had been no proving. It was all too hard, too heavy. Like life itself.
She bent down, ran her fingers over the headstone. Mud had dried and caked over the words cut into the marble. She found her penknife and scraped it away, blowing to clear the residue.
Charles Swanford.
Hello, Daddy.
She traced the rest of the inscription, not needing to see it because it was incised in her memory. Beloved husband and father. And the quote: They make haste to shed innocent blood.
Innocent blood. She rose to face the angel. They needed a black angel, her father and mother. They were weak. Unprepared for the pressure life steamrolled over them. People who retreated and hid. Ran away. Died.
But they had her now. She snapped off the light, leaving the darkness to coil around her like a shroud. Edie was back. And she’d make everything right.
Copyright © 2009 by Annie Solomon. All rights reserved.
Author: Annie Solomon
Pages: 416
Publisher: Forever (May 1, 2009) (Hachette Book Group)
Genre: Fiction / Romantic Suspense
Edition: Paperback - Many thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy to review as part of this blog tour!
Perfect for : Personal reading, anyone who loves romantic suspense, twists and turns, strong characters
In a nutshell: The brilliant writing in One Deadly Sin by Annie Solomon kept me on the edge of my seat, holding my breath (and crossing my fingers for the sparks flying between Edie and Sheriff Holt Drennen) as I tried to figure out the mystery behind what happened to Edie Swann's father, and who was trying to keep the past from being exposed. There was not one moment of boredom in this fast-paced romantic mystery, which I didn't want to end!
Extended Review: After losing her father as a young girl, and her mother a few years later, Edie Swann leaves the small town of Redbud for the big city, changing her name in an attempt to distance herself from the loss she feels. As a young woman, she returns to the small town in an attempt to gain revenge against a list of people she believes are behind the death of her father. After visiting her fathers grave, marked with a large black angel/gargoyle, she begins anonymously leaving tiny black angels for the people on her revenge list, and they begin to die, leading her to believe that there is someone else who doesn't want the past being remembered! The people of the town turn against her as she becomes a suspect, and then a target - will she be the next to die?
In the meantime, she has bumped into the town sheriff, Holt Drennen, a hunky single father who is trying to keep the town a safe place, and trying to hide his interest in the towns most recent newcomer. While all the evidence seems to implicate Edie as a prime suspect, he simply doesn't believe she is killing the people of the town.
Both Edie and Holt are trying to find out how the dead men knew each other in an attempt to find out why they are being killed before someone else dies. As Edie becomes a target herself, Holt must hide her and try to track down the real killer.
Characters: Edie is a strong young woman filled with purpose and spunk. She charms Holt Drennen's young daughter, becoming a temptation to him at the same time. Holt is a man filled with strengths of his own, and he is on a mission to keep his town (and Edie) safe!
Story-Line: The story is focused on an old tragedy, and is filled with plenty of romantic tension, and enough twists and turns to keep you guessing until the end!
Readability: A great read! Fun, engrossing and easy to read and enjoy!
Overall: This page-turner is brilliantly written, and will engage the reader in adventure, passion and suspense from beginning to end. If you enjoy a little romantic tension, a good mystery, and a great story filled with twists and turns, be sure to pick up a copy of this book!
From the publisher:
COMING HOME IS MURDER...
Revenge. Edie Swann has hungered for it since she fled her hometown as a little girl. Now she's returned, ready for payback. Armed with a list of names, she leaves each one a chilling sign that they have blood on their hands. Her father's blood. What happens next turns her own blood cold: one by one, the men she's targeted start dying.
Sheriff Holt Drennen knows Edie is hiding something. She has a haunted look in her eyes and a defiant spirit, yet he can't believe she's a murderer. As the body count rises and all evidence points to Edie, Holt is torn between the town he's sworn to protect and the woman he's come to desire. But nothing is what it seems. Long buried secrets begin to surface, and a killer won't be satisfied until the sins of the past are paid in full--this time with Edie's blood.
Excerpt from Annie Solomon's website:
She came at night, creeping into town like a shade. Darkness suited her. It evoked the past, that black hole of fury and mystery. Recapturing it required dark arts.
There was irony, arriving at midnight. Pulling into the cemetery at the traditional witching hour, leaving the street lights behind. She inched forward, navigating through stars, those pinpricks of light. And memory.
The stars were out that night, too, long ago when the doorbell clanged and shattered the silence into before and after. She’d heard it through her bedroom door when she should have been asleep. But who could sleep with her father accused and missing, her mother an inconsolable machine of tears?
She remembered the darkness through her window, the moon a sly smile in the sky, the black a background against which the grown-up voices rumbled below.
And then her mother’s scream.
Unhuman, animal, a throat ripped out, a universe hacked and splattered into pieces. A sound so feral the memory of it still gave her shivers.
No one screamed now. Nothing broke the silence but the hum of her wheels rolling down the winding cemetery road, a path between graves.
At last she slowed. Stopped. Turned off the engine.
And picked her way over the dead to her destination. The last thing she’d seen in this town. The last image of home. Now, it was the first thing she’d see on her return.
The black angel.
She swept a penlight over the sculpture. Remembered the gargoyle face seen with ten-year-old eyes. Twenty years later she saw the face was meant to be kind. But it was overshadowed by massive wings that spanned up and out, looming over the headstone like a vampire bat.
There had been hot arguments over that angel. Even banished to her room, she could hear her mother and her aunt fighting.
“It’s frightening. Unholy,” her aunt had said. “A mark against his name.”
“They put the mark there, not me.”
“They who?”
“I don’t know!”
“You can’t do this, Evelyn.”
“It’s done.” Her mother’s voice was harsh and strained. “It stays until the stain is gone. Until I can prove it.”
Until I can prove it.
Poor mother.
There had been no proving. It was all too hard, too heavy. Like life itself.
She bent down, ran her fingers over the headstone. Mud had dried and caked over the words cut into the marble. She found her penknife and scraped it away, blowing to clear the residue.
Charles Swanford.
Hello, Daddy.
She traced the rest of the inscription, not needing to see it because it was incised in her memory. Beloved husband and father. And the quote: They make haste to shed innocent blood.
Innocent blood. She rose to face the angel. They needed a black angel, her father and mother. They were weak. Unprepared for the pressure life steamrolled over them. People who retreated and hid. Ran away. Died.
But they had her now. She snapped off the light, leaving the darkness to coil around her like a shroud. Edie was back. And she’d make everything right.
Copyright © 2009 by Annie Solomon. All rights reserved.
About the Author: (from the publisher's site) A native New Yorker, RITA-winning author Annie Solomon has been dreaming up stories since she was ten. After a twelve-year career in advertising, where she rose to Vice President and Head Writer at a mid-size agency, she abandoned the air conditioners, furnaces and heat pumps of her professional life for her first love—romance. An avid knitter, she now lives in Nashville with her husband and daughter.
Visit her website here.
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11 Comments:
I love a book that keeps me on the edge of my seat!
This book looks like it has a little of everything! It sounds like a book that I would really enjoy reading!
Cindy
Socmom213@aol.com
Hey, Wendi! So glad you liked the book. Hope the rest of you enjoy it, too. And good luck with the giveaway.
I can't wait to read this book. The reviews have been excellent.
megalon22[at]yahoo[dot]com
The excerpt game ME shivers. I am excited to read the rest!! Sounds great!
Book sounds great, love to win!
rebecca.cox@charter.net
This book sounds great! I can't wait to read it.
lovinfitch@aol.com
Thanks for the review. I am currently reading a thriller like this book. I love when you can't put the book down. THis one sounds great.
One Deadly Sin sounds sinful...count me in I would like to read it.
Oh goodness reading the review made me want to read it even more! I've never read from this author! It will be on my GoodRead list!!! Thanks!
The review tells me this is a book right up my alley. I love good mysteries.
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