Winter Haven by Athol Dickson

Hello Everyone!

At first I wasn't sure about this book. The opening didn't really catch me, I got a bit lost even at the front of it. A few pages later it latched on and I was hooked! LOL! Interestingly enough, there is a Winter Haven in Florida, but the setting is this book is far better than Florida. This book starts out with a murder, or at least a missing person, once you get into it just a bit. Vera's brother, who is 4 years old than herself, has been missing for 13 years. His body has washed ashore, so she has to go ID the body. It isn't as simple as oh, a person drowned, or anything like that. You see, Vera's brother is (or was?) autistic! (Ah, now we get to something I know some about!) Better yet, he is a Savant! A Savant who has the ENTIRE Bible memorized. What a gift!

However, as in my life nothing is as simple as it might seem on the surface. Vera is throw for a huge loop! Her brother's body has NOT AGED! To make it worse for her, Vera is seeing thing and she isn't sure if she is having visions, or just loosing her mind, or if God really just wrote her off and punished her! Vera has had so many tragic things happen to her in her life. Even her boss uses her! Can Vera figure out what happened to her brother? Can she cope with what she is seeing? Is it real, or is what she is seeing her finally loosing her mind from it all, and last but not least at all, what does Evan Frost have to do with this? He is into Viking, and so was her brother Siggy. Will Frost's spooky mansion be the healing, or the death of Vera?

I would say this book was as good as the movie "Gothica", and has a nice gothic feel to a good deal of it. I grew up on Nancy Drew and other mystery books, and I LOVE a good mystery! This book is a very good one!!!

Carol :)

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Winter Haven
(Bethany House April 1, 2008)
by
Athol Dickson

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Athol Dickson's university-level training in painting, sculpture, and architecture was followed by a long career as an architect then his decision several years ago to devote full time to writing.Athol Dickson’s writing has been favorably compared to the work of Octavia Butler(Publisher’s Weekly), Daphne du Maurier (Cindy Crosby, FaithfulReader.com) and FlanneryO’Connor (The New York Times).His They Shall See God was a Christy Award finalist and his River Rising was a Christy Award winner, selected as one of the Booklist Top Ten Christian Novels of 2006 and a finalist for Christianity Today's Best Novel of 2006.He and his wife, Sue, live in Southern California. Visit www.AtholDickson.com for more information.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Boys who never age, giants lost in time, mist that never rises, questions never asked...on the most remote of islands off the coast of Maine, history haunts the present and Vera Gamble wrestles with a past that will not yield. Will she find refuge there, or will her ghosts prevail on...Winter Haven Eleven years ago, Vera Gamble's brother left their house never to be seen again. Until the day Vera gets a phone call that his body has been found...washed ashore in the tiny island town of Winter Haven, Maine. His only surviving kin, Vera travels north to claim the body...and finds herself tumbling into a tangled mystery. Her brother hasn't aged a day since last she saw him.Determined to uncover what happened in those lost years, Vera soon discovers there are other secrets lurking in this isolated town. But Winter Haven's murky past now seems bound to come to light as one woman seeks the undeniable and flooding light of truth.

The book link is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764201646