Title: You Believers
Author: Jane Bradley
Publisher: Unbridled Books
Publication Date: May 3, 2011
Hardcover: 416 pages
ISBN: 978-1609530464
Genre: Fiction, Suspense

From the Publisher:

You Believers is a powerful, cathartic story of casual evil and of how the worst things can be faced so that we might not only survive, but grow. A young woman goes missing, and her mother uproots her life to find her daughter. But it is not just the heartbreak or the deep mystery of the hunt for lost loved ones that Bradley so convincingly explores. Rather, with the help of an amazingly dedicated searcher, family and friends somehow learn to move past unspeakable horror and celebrate the tenacity of the human spirit. Offering a vision that is at once ruthless and utterly compassionate, Bradley renders the search for logic, meaning, redemption and even hope in the domino force that is human nature.

Part Southern gothic, part crime, part haunting suspense story, You Believers takes us on an infinitely harrowing journey that rewards the reader with insight into how we might endure horrible events with faith, strength, and grace even while it reveals the ripple effects of random violence..

My Review:

Katy Conner is missing and the efforts of Shelby Waters to find the missing bartender is only the start of this unique story of a crime, told from multiple vantage points. You Believers by Jane Bradley grips readers with a story of the atrocities some will inflict upon others and readers will want to set aside the time to feverishly read this one through to the end. Bradley shares her gift for compellingly crafted prose as she writes from the perspectives of those endeared to Katy, of the searchers and the perpetrators. Characters are developed convincingly in this tale of loss, perseverance and the love that makes these emotions so inextricably linked. Rarely are readers treated to the kinds of perspectives served up in this story where even the motivations behind the sociopath who is out to redeem himself for his flawed upbringing are detailed. Engagingly complex, yet masterfully assembled to keep the reader’s attention, I highly recommend You Believers to anyone looking for an absolutely heart-stopping fiction suspense novel.

About the Author:

Jane Bradley is the author of two acclaimed story collections and a novella, Power Lines, which was named a New York Times Notable Book. Originally from Chattanooga, Tennessee, she now teaches at the University of Toledo in Ohio. This is her first full-length novel.

I received a complimentary ARC of You Believers by Jane Bradley from Unbridled Books to offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.

Title: The Descent of Man
Author: Kevin Desinger
Publisher: Unbridled Books
Publication Date: May 3, 2011
Hardcover: 272 pages
ISBN: 978-1609530433
Genre: Fiction, Suspense

From the Publisher:

One night Jim, a quiet wine steward, wakes to find two men trying to steal his car. Against the petitions of his wife, he goes outside to get the plate number of the thieves’ truck. Instead, something comes over him and he drives away in their truck until he recovers his wits and realizes what he’s done. When Jim learns that the two would-be thieves are brothers with a history of violence, he soon finds himself over his head in a mire of sinister events and must risk everything to regain what he can of his life before that night.

My Review:

The Descent of Man by Kevin Desinger tells the story of Jim and his wife Marla and exemplifies how one decision, right or wrong, can be pivotal in determining the pathway our lives follow.  Desinger wastes no time in captivatingly snaring the reader’s attention on page one where we learn of Jim’s important and fateful decision.  Jim and Marla’s marriage was in turmoil and fueled by a lack of trust, it may have been near its end.  But one evening, Jim and Marla experience a chain of events touched off by Jim’s one decision, a decision that went against Marla’s pleas, that would introduce this couple to a series of events that could only be borne of evil.  Desinger, in his debut novel, takes readers on a tense, exciting, yet dark journey through the descent of a quiet professional into a man driven by an innate, primal instinct to protect all that he has built in his life.  Offer up any details on what events transpired in Jim and Marla’s life together would spoil much of the book’s mystery.  I would recommend The Descent of Man to all readers, but especially those looking for a taught thriller with a lot of underlying moral and ethical questions which make this also on interesting choice for discussion groups.

About the Author:

Kevin Desinger graduated from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop before moving to Portland where he wrote for the Willamette Week, the Oregonian and a number of regional publications. An earlier short story appeared in The Missouri Review. This is his first novel.

I received a complimentary ARC of The Descent of Man by Kevin Desinger from Unbridled Books to offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.

Title: The Coffins of Little Hope
Author: Timothy Schaffert
Publisher: Unbridled Books
Publication Date: April 19, 2011
Hardcover: 272 pages
ISBN: 978-1609530402
Genre: Fiction

From the Publisher:

Timothy Schaffert has created his most memorable character yet in Essie, an octogenarian obituary writer for her family’s small town newspaper. When a young country girl is reported to be missing, perhaps whisked away by an itinerant aerial photographer, Essie stumbles onto the story of her life. Or, it all could be simply a hoax, or a delusion, the child and child-thief invented from the desperate imagination of a lonely, lovelorn woman. Either way, the story of the girl reaches far and wide, igniting controversy, attracting curiosity-seekers and cult worshippers from all over the country to this dying rural town. And then it is revealed that the long awaited final book of an infamous series of ya gothic novels is being secretly printed on the newspaper’s presses.

The Coffins of Little Hope tells a feisty, energetic story of characters caught in the intricately woven webs of myth, legend and deception even as Schaffert explores with his typical exquisite care and sharp eye the fragility of childhood, the strength of family, the powerful rumor mills of rural America, and the sometimes dramatic effects of pop culture on the way we shape our world.

My Review:

I have enjoyed every book I have read by Timothy Schaffert and after reading The Coffins of Little Hope I realised this is, in my opinion, his best book to date.  Schaffert has a beautiful, subtle and unassuming writing style, which easily draws the reader into the story.  In this instance there are four stories occurring at once and Schaffert expertly weaves them together and gives them life through the voice of 83-year-old Essie, the obituary writer for the County Paragraph, a small town paper which was begun by her father and her grandson is now shutting down.  The characters, real or imagined, as one will learn, are expertly crafted and their lives are told to the reader through Essie, an unpretentious, sharp and intelligent woman, who if truly listened to, has plenty of advise to offer.  I was not able to set The Coffins of Little Hope down and was sorry to see it end, as all books must.  I became accustomed to Essie and I shall miss her, and while it may sound odd, she is a character that one will not easily dismiss or forget.  The Coffins of Little Hope speaks of the past and present cultures while hinting at what may lie ahead, not always easy topics to hear, yet these topics are not isolated to this delightful, quaint, and dying town in Nebraska, rather, through Essie, Schaffert speaks of topics universal and worth remembering.  I would recommend The Coffins of Little Hope to all readers and book discussion groups.

About the Author:

Timothy Schaffert grew up on a farm in Nebraska and currently lives in Omaha. His short fiction has been published in several literary journals and he’s won numerous awards, including the Mary Roberts Rinehart Award and the Nebraska Book Award.
He is the author of two other critically-acclaimed novels, The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God and Devils in the Sugar Shop.

Learn more about Timothy Schaffert and his books by visiting his website or following him on Twitter.

I received a complimentary ARC of The Coffin of Little Hope by Timothy Schaffert from Unbridled Books to offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.