MY LATEST BOOK: DARK SECRETS

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KIRKUS BOOK REVIEW

Part murder mystery, part family saga, this historical novel follows a young woman of Swedish ancestry who’s determined to uncover a secret that tormented her grandmother for years.

In 1939 Sweden, Helga Johansson is visiting her family; she recently emigrated from that country to Oregonwith her little daughter Sofia. Helga’s Polish and Jewish sister-in-law, Rebecca, has died under mysterious circumstances; at the same time, the widower, Helga’s brother Johann, is taking in their brother Gunnar’s son to raise. This distant episode will mysteriously haunt Helga for decades, causing her to suffer from nightmares and scream in her sleep. Her behavior deeply troubles her daughter and, later, her granddaughter, Lena—especially after the trauma leads Helga to commit suicide. Lena, in her late teens, begins her own investigation, questioning her mother; her neighbor Mrs. Lundberg, whose husband owned the fishing company where her grandfather worked; and even Yael, her Jewish high school friend whose parents moved to New  York after World War II. Although the first half of the novel spans 12 years, the plot never deviates from the central mystery; indeed, whether Lena is talking to her mother, her English teacher, or her boyfriend, the conversation seems to always return to her grandmother’s nightmares, screaming, and suicide. It’s not until a new loss pushes Lena to go to Sweden herself that the action picks up. Johann’s second wife, Hanna, and his nephew Axel are charming but secretive, and they both help and hinder Lena in her search for the truth. With the introduction of Skåne, the setting of the family farm in the south of the country, the book expands its themes, sprinkling in a few intriguing details of Swedish culture and customs as well as little-known facts about the country’s status and underground activities during World War II. Lena’s final discovery comes with a satisfying plot twist that reveals just how complicated family ties can be.

A ...read that ultimately delivers a compelling investigation.

I hope you will read my newest novel, Dark Secrets. While you're at it, check out my last novel, Under the Salvadoran Sun:

a late-in-life romance wrapped around the issue of immigration---a journey of faith, with some danger thrown in! 

THE BOOK COVER PHOTO OF BLEKINGE WOODS IN SWEDEN  WAS CONTRIBUTED BY MY SWEDISH COUSIN. IT'S OF THE ACTUAL WOODS WHERE THE MYSTERY UNFOLDS. MY MODEL AND PHOTOSHOP HELPED COMPLETE THE  IMAGE.