Stacy Juba

This book started out really well - great premise - I was interested. It was different. I looked forward to having time to read it to see what was going to happen. And then....the ending was just... off. I was really enjoying it up until the wrap-up.
It wasn't just one of those, "Oh! I can't believe that's how everything is going to be resolved!" deals - it wasn't that the ending was cheesy or something like that - it just really felt like someone else wrote the ending. The last quarter of the book just didn't read like the whole rest of it.
I'll probably try something else she wrote later - she is clearly talented, as the first 3/4 of the book shows. The ending of this one just didn't do it for me. It was told in such an odd way. It didn't match the rest of the story.… (altro)

Kris Langley has returned to her home town of Fremont, Massachusetts, and taken a job as editorial assistant and obit writer for the local paper. Part of that job is writing the "Twenty-five Years Ago Today" column, and while compiling items for the column from the paper's microfilm archive, she stumbles on the story of an unsolved murder. Diana Ferguson, a 21-year-old cocktail waitress, never arrived home one night after work at Rossi's Bar, and was found dead in the woods near the local college a few days later.

Kris doesn't use the story, out of sympathy for the family, but she can't let go of it. She blames herself for the kidnapping and murder of her cousin when they were twelve, and solving Diana's murder feels like a chance to make amends. But as she digs into the mystery, she finds herself in conflict with her family, her boss, and the murdered woman's handsome nephew, Eric Soares.

Kris's difficult relationship with her family feels painfully real to me. There are times I want to smack her sister, or tell her it's time to stop worrying about whether her mother thinks she's worthy. The sparks that fly with Eric, both of conflict and of attraction, grabbed me right away. The mystery itself is nicely complex, with multiple plausible suspects, evidence the police overlooked for entirely believable human reasons, and a killer who is not at all obvious, but who is in plain sight, with evidence and motive the reader could pick up on, if thinking it all through carefully, significantly before all the pieces fall into place.

Highly recommended.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the author.… (altro)

'What were you doing 25 years ago?' That was the question posed to 52 of her author colleagues by novelist and award-winning journalist Stacy Juba. In this collection of poignant and uplifting essays, you will read personal stories dealing with early school days; quirky first jobs; finding and keeping romance; the joys and difficulties of raising a family; going through various hard times; the pride and pitfalls associated with the writing journey; and discover what makes the characters these authors have created truly tick. Each story will alternately warm your heart, raise your spirits and ultimately compel you to examine your own life.

25 Years in the Rearview Mirror: 52 Authors Look Back by Stacy Juba will help readers discover a entire crop of new authors whose names they can add to their to-read lists. Publishing credits for each of the contributing writers include New York Times bestselling, USA Today bestselling and Amazon bestselling. They also include recipients of the Romantic Times Lifetime Achievement Award, Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award, Mississippi Author Award, Benjamin Franklin Award and Eppie Award, as well as nominees of the Pushcart Prize, Agatha and Shamus Awards, to name a few of the many honors.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this particular book. Alright, so it only took me two years to actually read, but I guess good things come to those who wait. :) I give 25 Years in the Rearview Mirror: 52 Authors Look Back by Stacy Juba a definite A+!

My mother had read Sink or Swim by the same author in March of 2011 and enjoyed it very much. I'm delighted to say that I have Twenty-Five Years Ago Today - the mystery that was the basis for the question asked in 25 Years in the Rearview Mirror - already on my TBR pile. I can assure you that reading Twenty-Five Years Ago Today won't take me another two years! :)… (altro)