Genre: Mystery
Description:
“Against hope, Smythe Windwalker Daniels anonymity is compromised and
a creditable threat has been made against her life. As the threats ratchet up,
she feels she has no place to hide. The danger impacts not only her life but
the lives of those around her. She reluctantly accepts the FBI’s protection,
hoping to testify and bring a promise of justice to a community.
Smythe is a woman with vision in her eyes and fire in her soul. From a
young age, Smythe was discriminated against as a mixed-race girl in a
predominately white neighborhood. She travels to Hawaii to escape the corporate
rat race, only to get entangled in a pesticide poisoning cover-up attempt by a
mega corporation. While on the run, she seeks to find meaning in events that
now threaten her life. Through a series of misadventures, she discovers how all
events are all woven together in this tapestry called “life.”
As she uses her past experience to find meaning in her present, she
begins to see beauty in the midst of chaos. But the harder she tries to hide,
the more difficult it is to survive.”
Author:
“Opa Hysea Wise is an American author, born to mixed race parents. She
grew up across the fabric of the United States and currently resides out West.
At 57, with nothing more than a knowing Opa
felt she was called away from her normal, relatively safe corporate life. She
resigned her position, pulled her life savings out of the market and step by
step followed the wisdom of her Beloved. Her footsteps led her first to Jack
Canfield, considered America's number one success coach. Certified as a Success
Principles trainer and speaker, Opa now offers half day and full day workshops focused
on shifting people from where they are to where they want to be, in any area of
their life.”
Appraisal:
I think it would be fair to say that my thoughts and feelings on No
Place to Hide are mixed.
Smythe, the story’s protagonist, is mixed-race and lesbian. I think
stories that allow me to get into the head of someone who is not at all like
myself is a positive, helping me better understand what life is like from other
points of view. Based on author Opa Hysea Wise’s biography, it appears that her
character has a lot in common with the author. Smythe is spiritual and works
hard at not only improving her own approach to life, but a budding success coach
as is the author herself. Smythe spends a lot of timing thinking on subjects related
to spirituality and self-improvement. As the book’s narrator the readers who
are in her head get to learn all about it. A certain amount of that is great,
adding to the aspect of getting in someone else’s head above, helping me to see
things from different viewpoints, and potentially helping me change my approach
in some aspect of my life for the better. The problem is that Smythe spent an inordinate
amount of time off on these tangents that while interesting, beneficial to some
degree, and helpful (to a point) in understanding Smythe, ultimately caused the
main story to drag and to get overshadowed by the tangents.
The main story was part mystery, figuring out who specifically was out
to get Smythe, presumably to prevent her from being a witness in a murder
trial, and even a bit of a thriller when things got especially tense. Although
there were some parts of the story that stretched my ability to suspend
disbelief to the limit, I enjoyed the core story, wondering how things were
going to end and what surprises were going to pop up getting there. I also
enjoyed a secondary story thread involving Smythe and her romantic life.
In spite of the parts that made the story drag I liked Smythe’s
character and wanted to find out what happened enough that there was no way I
wasn’t going to finish reading the book. So, on balance, I liked the book in
spite of having some issues with it.
Buy now
from: Amazon US Amazon UK
Format/Typo
Issues:
Review is based on an advance reader copy. I can’t gauge the quality
of the final product in this area.
Rating: ****
Four Stars
Reviewed
by: BigAl
Approximate word count: 120-125,000 words
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