Book Review: Ashes To Water by Irene Ziegler

Title: Ashes to Water
Author: Irene Ziegler
Publisher: Five Star
Publication Date: June 16, 2010
Hardcover: 394 pages
ISBN: 978-1594148606
Genre: Fiction, Mystery/Thriller

About the Book:

Set in the 1980s, Ashes to Water is an atmospheric story of a small-town Florida murder and one young woman’s reluctant involvement in its resolution.

When Annie Bartlett returns home to bury her murdered father, she confronts the woman arrested for the crime, only to discover reasons to fight for the woman’s acquittal. This pits her against her erratic and unwell sister, Leigh, whose very survival may depend on a guilty verdict.

Annie soon becomes snarled in the social and political dynamics of the town, a wrenching attraction to her old boyfriend, and the emotionally difficult business of sorting out her estranged father’s tangled past. Obstructing Annie further are “visits” from her mother, who drowned in Widow Lake when Annie was nine. As her attempts to solve her father’s murder lead to more bloodshed, Annie finds herself a suspect in a plot not of her making, and a threat to the town’s movers and shakers, suddenly very anxious to see her gone. When Annie’s father is finally laid to rest in the lake that claimed her mother, Annie glimpses in his sinking ashes the flashing glints of hope and healing.

While it stands alone, Ashes to Water continues the story of Annie Bartlett, who grows up in Ziegler’s collection of linked short stories, Rules of the Lake.

My Review:

Ashes to Water by Irene Ziegler is a mystery which reads like a mixture of a Shakespearean tragedy and an Agatha Christie Miss Marple Mystery. In this sequel to Rules of the Lake, which I have not read, Ashes to Water appears to do well as a stand alone book, but the entire time I wondered where in Annie Bartlett’s life the first book left off, as there is a lot of family history such as Leigh’s drug and alcohol problems coupled with Annie seeing and speaking to her dead mother as though she is still alive and both daughters cutting off all communication with their father. Ashes to Water begins with a flashback to 1962 when Helen Bartlett committed suicide by drowning herself in Widow Lake. Back to present day (1981), three weeks before Annie Bartlett is to marry Camp, she receives a phone call that takes her back to the small town of DeLeon, Florida, a place to which she had hoped to never return. Irene Ziegler sets up a fantastic and descriptive backdrop for DeLeon, as she details a Florida prior to the building boom. Ziegler shows equal determination to detail her characters, and for a small town, there are a lot of characters. These characters include, but are not limited to Pete Duncan, Annie’s former boyfriend-turned-attorney who is court-appointed to represent Della Shiftlet, the accused, to Kingfisher Powell, an over-zealous land developer who is trying to buy up all the land around Widow Lake, giving him motive, Leigh, Annie’s messed up older sister and her abusive drug dealing boyfriend Miguel, and 18-year-old Eugene, a mentally challenged young man who enjoys setting fires and who just happens to be the son of Judge Lanier, presiding judge over the murder trial, to give the reader a few ideas of the varied types of characters included in this intense narrative. Ashes to Water is a well-crafted mystery filled with beautiful details, deep psychological issues and plenty of plot twists to keep the reader guessing. Ashes to Water is not a typical mystery, it is a study of individuals and the complex nature of relationships and the damages brought on by secrets. I would recommend Ashes to Water to any reader who enjoys a complex mystery.

About the Author:

Irene Ziegler is the author of Rules of the Lake (stories) and Ashes to Water, both set in central Florida, where Irene grew up. An actor, she has had recurring roles or guest starred in many notable TV series and films. She is also the voice on your cell phone’s GPS, so kindly stop yelling at her. She lives in Virginia with her husband and a wolf-dog. She is an excellent parallel parker.

Visit Irene Ziegler’s website.
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For more reviews of the book, please follow the book tour.

I received a complimentary copy of Ashes to Water by Irene Ziegler from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.

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