R. Jean Reid

Naomi "Nell" Nelligan McGraw is a woman from the midwest, who married the son of a newspaper owner in Pelican Bay, Mississippi. In time, Mr. McGraw Sr. died, Thom inherited the paper, and Thom and Nell ran it together.

Now Thom has been killed by a drunk driver, and Nell is a widow, raising their two children and running the paper on her own. It's only been a month, and she's just beginning to regain her emotional footing. It's a challenge being a single parent of a teenager and a pre-teen, but the paper is also a challenge. Nell is a good journalist, and a good editor, but Thom was the one with the people skills, good at handling the staff. Nell has no confidence in her skills in that area. She's managing, though.

Then she gets a call from Kate Brown, owner of the local bicycle shop. She was out hiking in the state park, and found a tree downed by the recent storm. In its roots, there were two skeletons. And they were clearly murdered.

When a third skeleton is found, and the remains are dated to the 1960s, right in the middle of the civil rights unrest, the tension goes sky-high. Nell pursues the story despite pressure from the Mayor, the chief of police, and a flood of angry letters and phone calls. There's a mayoral election campaign on, and that makes this an even bigger controversy. The mayor's family owned the land that's now the state park, and the mayor donated it on condition it never be developed a couple of decades ago.

When Nell starts looking into how the major's family got the land originally, things really start to heat up. These murders were a product of the civil rights conflict, as everyone wanted them not to be, and also connect to a land fraud scheme that could tear Pelican Bay apart.

I like Nell, her kids, and her employees, and the challenge of the big, controversial story and all the fallout from it tests the character of the entire staff, as individuals and as a team. This is a great, absorbing mystery.

Recommended.

I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.… (meer)

Perdition by R. Jean Reid is a highly recommended mystery.

Recently widowed Nell McGraw has decided to stay in the small Gulf town with her two children and continue to run the weekly paper, the Pelican Bay Crier, founded by her husband's grandfather. Not that it's all that easy when long-time Sheriff Hickson and relatively new Police Chief Shaun can't seem to get along or cooperate with each other. First a young girl is murdered and then a young boy. Is there a serial killer on the loose in this small Mississippi town and can law enforcement manage to cooperate with each other long enough to find the killer.

As a journalist, Nell needs to keep digging and asking questions to try and get as much information as she can. To make things worse, the killer has taken to calling Nell late at night, disguising his voice, to tell her where the bodies are or just to taunt her. To further her stress, Nell has one great cub reporter and one worthless one, and the sexist bully in the police department who threatens Nell got his charges dropped due to his father's connections. Adding to everything is the fact that keeping track of her teen children is now her sole responsibility.

The writing is very good and Reid keeps the reader guessing about the identity of the killer. Sensitive readers should note that the prologue in Perdition is very graphic, albeit a good hook to keep you reading. It takes place in the past and the reader is left wondering how it fits into the present mystery. The beginning of the novel moves at a fast pace but then the action/pace seems to slow down after that. Even though this a second book in the series, you needn't read the first book to enjoy this one.

I did have a few minor issues with Perdition. Nell should have just fired Carrie. If an employee constantly whines about doing her job to her boss and is incompetent at her job, then it is time for her to move on to something else. There is no reason Nell should have kept her around. Also many of the interactions with her kids, especially her daughter, became annoying. She tends to alternately worry about both of them obsessively, anticipate her daughter's poor reactions, or forgets them completely. Perhaps the constant driving her kids around is realistic, but mentioning it so much became tiring and seemed out of place in the small town setting where her kids would both be riding bikes or walking to/from school. And since everyone in town knows there might be a killer on the loose, other people would likely help pick them up and drop them off.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of the publisher/author.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2017/06/perdition.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2020784026… (meer)

This was the second installment in the Nell McGraw series, and while I haven't read the first book, I never had the feeling I was missing something.

The prologue was unexpectedly shocking and may offend more squeamish readers, but it was very effective to draw my undivided attention - I raced through the first half in one sitting: a true page turner. The characters were well-drawn and a good mixture: some I liked immediately, while others took some time to warm to, and some remained disagreeable to the end. I appreciated how some characters changed during the book, or maybe more precisely how my view of them was changed with the turn of events.

Then in the second half the story stalled a bit. Every few pages Nell wondered about the whereabouts of her children, that she had to take them to/from some place and her insecurities about being a good single mother. While that was understandable as a part of her every day routine and as a still struggling to adjust widow, it slowed the story down repeatedly. The ending came as a surprise, but then again not so - or maybe I'm just spoiled from other stories.

My one-line conclusion: a page-turner thriller that pulls no punches and leaves me wanting for more.

(Thanks to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for a copy of the book, all opinions are my own)… (meer)

When I first read the prologue I almost vomited because it was like a car accident you couldn't look away from no matter how horrifying it made you feel. I actually had to reread the same paragraph a few times to make sure it was saying what I thought it said. When I got done I wasn't sure if I could continue with the rest of the book because the hatred I felt for this character was intense. I did though because I thought if an author can evoke this strong of an emotion at the very beginning then they deserved my attention for the rest. Even if it started off difficult to read I was glad I stayed in there because Reid definitely does a great job at writing mysteries.

The plot lines and characters are fleshed out well and the writer's overall style makes this a very easy read as it just flows to the point you don't realize how much binge reading you have done in a single sitting.

This being the second in a series I hope there are more to come as I'm vastly curious what they'll come up with next.… (meer)