Jessica Wren

This was a really enjoyable read. I loved the small American town feeling to it, with everyone knowing each other (their thoughts too). It worked well when the town was suddenly faced with a terrible crisis and they all had to band together to overcome it. The Minter is a very original take on Telepathy too. It makes sense without being over explained.
The mystery is there throughout. All in all this was a highly entertaining read that kept me going all the way to the end. I would absolutely recommend this book to family and friends (in fact I already have).… (altro)

Shortly after the large Quirogas and de los Santos families moved into the somewhat isolated southeastern Georgia town of Minterville, the town's secret resource, the Minter, a sort of social media style of telepathy connecting the longtime residents of the town, begins to crackle and fade, suddenly going silent with the arrival of a perpetual storm five months later. But the loss of the Minter becomes a minor issue when a month later twenty women and girls disappear, which the town authorities soon discover is a vengeful, psychotic act of frigid terrorism and extortion. This long novella is a quick read that, at its core, will satisfy fans of suspenseful and thoughtful crime thrillers. However, any fan of paranormal thriller fiction will find disappointment as the Minter is not greatly significant to the main plot, rather only offering a subtle clue to a minor reveal. Instead, I could see the Minter more as a symbol of community from its fragility in the face of mistrust, suspicion and fear to its regaining of strength and resilience through loss, understanding, and forgiveness. Yet, it is not clear whether this was the direction the author was seeking with this element, leaving it open to discussion as to its clarity and importance to the story. Editing and grammatical errors were in an acceptable range and not a distraction to the general read, so all in all, this was a decent debut effort from this author.… (altro)