Genre:
Mystery/Psychological Thriller
Description:
“Twenty
years ago, Kate Cranbrook’s eyewitness testimony sent the wrong man
to prison for rape and murder. When new evidence exonerates him, Kate
says that in the darkness and confusion, she must have mistaken her
attacker’s identity.
She is
lying.
Kate would
like nothing better than to turn her back on the past, but she is
trapped in a stand-off with the real killer. When a body turns up on
her doorstep, she resorts to desperate measures to free herself once
and for all from a secret that is ruining her life.”
Author:
“Elizabeth
Buhmann is originally from Virginia, where her first novel is set,
and like her main character, she lived several years abroad while
growing up. She graduated magna cum laude from Smith College in
Northampton, Massachusetts, and has a PhD in Philosophy from the
University of Pittsburgh. For twenty years, she worked for the Texas
Attorney General as a researcher and writer on criminal justice and
crime victim issues. Elizabeth now lives in Austin, Texas, with her
husband, dog, and two chickens. She is an avid gardener, loves murder
mysteries, and has a black sash in Tai Chi.”
Appraisal:
In 1986,
a man was murdered. I was beaten and raped. The ensuing trial
dominated local headlines until my eyewitness testimony sent a man
named Jules Jefferson to prison for life.
I lied.
You what?
Oh, my.
Common
wisdom says an author should grab the reader from the first few
words, which is correct (or at least a good idea if you don’t want
to lose too many readers). But that same advice says the way you do
that is with action or conflict of some kind. I’m not sure these
first words fit any of the most touted techniques for grabbing a
reader’s attention, but they sure did mine.
From those
first words we slowly learn what happens when Jefferson, convicted
based on the narrator Kate’s testimony, is exonerated based on DNA
evidence as she tells her side of the story. I’m hesitant to go
into any kind of detail for fear of a spoiler other than to say that
despite knowing from the outset that Kate knew she lied (and
therefore must have some clue what the truth is) that each new
revelation changed my perception of where the story was going, right
up to the very end. A well written, unpredictable story. You’ll
love it.
FYI:
A small
amount of adult language.
Added
for Reprise Review: Lay
Death at Her Door was a
nominee in the Mystery category for B&P 2014 Readers' Choice
Awards. Original review ran June 18, 2013.
Format/Typo
Issues:
No
significant issues.
Rating:
***** Five Stars
Reviewed
by: BigAl
Approximate
word count: 95-100,000 words
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