The Reckoning at Gossamer Pond by Jaime Jo Wright Published by Baker Books on July 3, 2018
Genres: Fiction / Christian / Suspense, Fiction / Gothic, Fiction / Romance / Suspense
Pages: 352
Format: Audiobook
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In this dual-time romantic suspense novel, two women, separated by a hundred years, must uncover the secrets within the borders of their town before it's too late.
For over a century, the town of Gossamer Grove has thrived on its charm and Midwestern values, but Annalise Forsythe knows painful secrets, including her own, hover just beneath the pleasant facade. Yet her strange and sudden inheritance of a run-down trailer home--full of pictures, vintage obituaries, and old revival posters--leaves her wholly unprepared for how truly dark and deadly those secrets may be.A century earlier, Gossamer Grove is stirred into chaos by the arrival of controversial and charismatic twin revivalists. The chaos takes a murderous turn when Libby Sheffield, while working at her father's newspaper, receives an obituary for a reputable church deacon hours before his death. As she works with the deacon's son to solve the crime, it becomes clear that a reckoning has come to town--but it isn't until another obituary arrives at the paper that they realize the true depths of the danger they've waded into.
Two women, separated by a hundred years, must unravel the mysteries of their own town before it's too late and they lose their future--or their very souls.
I have no notes. I am still formulating thoughts and possibly will be even long after this goes live. It’s no secret that Jaime Jo is one of Draven’s and my favorite authors. She makes the short list, but there’s also a long list 😀 Earlier this year as we both restarted our reading journey we decided, among others, to reread Mrs. Wright from the beginning and this is book number 2. We also created a Reading Jaime Jo Wright reading challenge over on StoryGraph. All that because I have no notes. So let’s see if anyone can make sense of my randomly distorted thoughts.
Historical fiction is one of my absolute favorite genres. Add a dual timeline, and I’m a sucker. It’s already got stars because it is what it is. Jaime Jo also has this amazing ability to go deeper into something closer to a thriller adjacent while keeping the door closed. Gossamer Grove has a problem. Lots of them. All secret. Some of these folks aren’t even morally gray; they are morally bankrupt. I don’t want to give up too much, but I also appreciate the take that even the leaders of the church aren’t presented as holier-than-thou, but as real humans who are far from perfect, even possibly one of the morally bankrupt. Literally, not everyone is who or what they seem to be. And that leads to something else that Jamie Jo does amazingly well: keeping the twists and turns from being figured out before they are revealed to your face. So many things I thought I knew; a few I was close, but I was still just as gripped and surprised when they came to fruition.
Additionally, and while I didn’t talk about this point in The House on Foster Hill, there is a romance thread; it’s subtle, which works perfectly for me. I am not a romance girlie, typically. The faith threads were more prominent in this book, and that really hit all the right marks for me. Many times in faith-based fiction, I find that the faith is an afterthought and thrown in randomly (for the record, it’s perfectly okay to have faith-based fiction that is just morally clean) OR it’s almost like proselytizing. The Poe threads woven in were just brilliant as well. I guess if I was going to have to share a complaint, it would be that it just wrapped up too quickly. We spent a lot of time together building the story, the people, the hidden secrets, and the chaos just for a somewhat neat little bow. Overall, though, Jaime Jo Wright is still solidly on the short list of favorite authors.
About Jaime Jo Wright
Jaime Jo, is a coffee-fueled and cat-fancier extraordinaire who has entwined her life with her pirate, Captain Hook, and two side-kicks who think they’re adults. They’re not. She resides serenely in Wisconsin’s rural woodlands with her six cats, an axolotl, and too many houseplants to be reasonable.
Her literary vocation involves penning Gothic tales with a strong preference to the master of dark, Edgar Allan Poe. She prefers her literary passages through dark hallways ends with a spark of hope, and some have compared her hauntings to Scooby-Doo endings.
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