Helpful Score: 8
Great stuff. Here is my Amazon.com review:
Though this is Gregg's first fiction book, you'd never realize it if you were to pick it up and read it without knowing so.
Without giving away the entire plot, Hannah, devoted wife, mother & "county" (as she likes to say) investigator has been living her own personal hell since her traumatic childhood experience. Though she never has been able to live a 'normal' life, she's perhaps accomplished much more than she thought possible. Those who were there in her time of need as a child are there for her NOW, when her past comes back to reclaim her life. Also there at this time are those who are intent on making sure her nightmare never ends.
I rarely read fiction now, since discovering the true crime genre, but hope that Gregg continues with a novel every so often. It's a nice break, especially when written by someone who has the knowledge and experience to make it read like a true crime book. High 5 Gregg!
Though this is Gregg's first fiction book, you'd never realize it if you were to pick it up and read it without knowing so.
Without giving away the entire plot, Hannah, devoted wife, mother & "county" (as she likes to say) investigator has been living her own personal hell since her traumatic childhood experience. Though she never has been able to live a 'normal' life, she's perhaps accomplished much more than she thought possible. Those who were there in her time of need as a child are there for her NOW, when her past comes back to reclaim her life. Also there at this time are those who are intent on making sure her nightmare never ends.
I rarely read fiction now, since discovering the true crime genre, but hope that Gregg continues with a novel every so often. It's a nice break, especially when written by someone who has the knowledge and experience to make it read like a true crime book. High 5 Gregg!
Helpful Score: 4
A CSI investigates the 20 year old murder of her family. Grizzly good read!
Helpful Score: 2
In his first novel, true crime writer Olsen (The Deep Dark) brings complex mystery and crackling authenticity to bear on a cold case police procedural. Hannah Griffin has spent most of her life trying to forget the notorious Christmas Eve house fire that claimed her family and turned up almost two dozen other bodies buried in their yard; though the case remained unsolved, Hannah's mother became, posthumously, the de facto prime suspect. Twenty years later, Hannah's a happily married mother of one, a crime scene investigator for Santa Louisa, Calif., and a lifetime away from her traumatic Oregon childhood¿until a series of mysterious events indicates that her mother may still be alive. Hannah reopens the case, as well as old wounds, after enlisting the help of FBI Special Agent Jeff Bauer, the still-haunted chief officer from the original investigation. Thanks to Olsen's true-crime work, the case's particulars both grisly and mundane all carry genuine weight, though his characters can be cloying: Hannah's neuroses occasionally seem more dingbat than damaged, and Agent Bauer's tough-but-tender act is a familiar one. That said, Olsen's flashback narrative shines with lurid, carefully distributed details, and if it ultimately overshadows the present-day plot, his bizarre, many-layered mystery will keep fans of crime fiction hooked.
Helpful Score: 2
Very disappointing, glad I got it free off PBS. Story was very shaky and didn't flow very smoothly at all, in fact I am amazed it held my interest enough for me to actually read the whole thing.
Helpful Score: 2
Not as good as true crime. I tried this book because I liked the true crime books this author had written. I will stick to true crime. Truth is stranger than fiction. It is just more interesting reading about what happened to real people than something someone made up.
