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Book Review of The Night the Lights Went Out

The Night the Lights Went Out
reviewed on + 1452 more book reviews


This is an interesting book that I almost stopped reading. The author spent so much time building relationships between the characters that I found myself wondering "What's the point?" By the time I came to the final pages I found that there was one and it's a surprise. That's why it's rated four stars rather than three.

Merrilee Talbot Dunlap, recently divorced has moved to Sweet Apple, Georgia, with her two children to start a new life. The divorce was tragic and the move mandated because her ex had an affair with one of the children's teachers. She needed to leave all that behind her in order to move on. She meets Sugar Prescott from whom she rents a small cottage. Both women have secrets they choose to keep within their hearts and perhaps it is this that brings them together. Sugar is drawn to Merrilee and her two children and finds herself sharing stories of her life with them, something she had done with few people.

The past for Merrilee includes the drowning of her beloved brother and later her high school sweetheart. However, she finds friendship with a woman who works to have a perfect home, husband, and image. Heather Blackford seems too good to be true but Merrilee finds her friendship warm and welcoming. However, when Heather's husband drowns in a lake, obviously murdered, Merrilee finds her life falling apart. Because of the drownings in her past and the fact that she finds the body the community and police begin to focus on Merrilee as the murderer. Merrilee cannot explain why her shoe was found on the dock, why there are messages on her cell phone to and from this kind man. Who really killed Heather's husband and why? Read the novel and discover the answers for yourself.