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Gale Grayson has left England under duress and has moved back to her hometown of Statlers Cross, Georgia. In A Far and Deadly Cry, we learn how Gale became a pariah in the English village of Fetherbridge and her reluctance to move back to the States. She returns in order to figure out what to do next and to give her four-year-old daughter, Katie Pru, the opportunity to learn her roots and heritage. It will not be an easy transition but she will give it a try. It will take a suspicious death to shift focus on the local inhabitants of this small town and bring back Gale to a place she thought she left back in England. The Grass Widow will explore a bit more of Ms. Graysonís past and introduce us to a new character that will appear in further books in the series named Nadianna Jesup. She is an amateur photographer who has lived her entire life in Statlers Cross. Her pictures will unlock a deep dark secret that few people were left unaware. Holbrook brings back small town sensitivities where appearance is important and anything unsavory is swept under the rug. Everyone in town is concerned about what other people might think while being unaware of its unintended consequences. In the case of this story, it is the suspicious death of Reverend Martin Cane during the annual Statlers Cross Southern Gospel Singing and Barbecue. Was it suicide or was it murder? What was the pastorís deep dark secret? Why are the Cane family covering things up? The Grass Widow is a character-driven novel that relies mostly on dialogue and is short on action. The author shows her strength in demonstrating how easy the prejudices come inside a small town, especially one as insulated as Statlers Cross. There are numerous secondary characters in the book that give this small town its regional flavor. One element that is unconvincing in the story is the long distance relationship between Gale and Daniel Halford, an English detective from the authorís first novel. The way things ended in A Far and Deadly Cry, the last thing one would expect is that they continue to communicate. Halford was the bane of Galeís existence and she had wanted nothing to do with him or the police. Now they are close friends who share everything including the going-on in the Georgia town. When everything is revealed at the end of the book, you will see how well the author can construct a strong plot. Making Gale Grayson the lead protagonist is the bookís main weakness inside a powerful narrative.
Reviewed by Angel L. Soto, January 2003
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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