Absolution [Hardcover]

Miriam Herin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2007

Absolution is the story of Maggie Delaney, an idealistic wife and mother whose world implodes when her husband Richard is murdered in a botched convenience-store robbery. To her horror, Maggie learns the shooting may not have been an accident.
When she attempts to find out what really happened, her search leads her back to her Carolina roots and through the streets of 1960s New York and modern-day
Boston. Maggie retraces the steps of a generation that came of age in the 1960s, when the world was embroiled in conflict.

As the murder trial draws near, disturbing questions arise about Richard and his possible role in military atrocities. Finally, in the jungles of Southeast Asia, Maggie uncovers a legacy of secrets about the man she thought she knew--and the troubled world they shared.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This impressive Novello Literary Award-winning debut skillfully combines a contemporary courtroom thriller with a subtle look back at the competing passions and pressures of the Vietnam War era. Maggie Delaney's world has been shattered by her husband Richard's murder after he intervened to protect a drugstore clerk from a gunman, teenage Vietnamese immigrant Anh Dung Nguyen. The local DA is convinced that his case against Nguyen is a slam dunk, but that assessment proves off-base when Everett Quincy, a high-profile attorney from New York, takes the case. Quincy suggests that Delaney's death is connected with his experiences in Vietnam, which may have led him to undue violence against Nguyen. This twist reawakens Maggie's antiwar past, as well as her long-ago personal relationship with Quincy. The flashbacks to the war are convincing, and despite some awkward plot elements, Herin delves deep into questions of guilt and forgiveness while demonstrating a gift for the nuances of personal interactions. (Oct.)
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Review

Part murder mystery, part legal thriller, part reflection on the Vietnam War in light of current wars, this novel finds Maggie Delaney recovering from the violent death of her husband, Richard, as the young man accused of the crime goes to trial. Richard Delaney, successful lawyer, Vietnam War veteran, father, and husband, was gunned down by Anh "Billy" Nguyen at a drugstore near his office. What at first seemed an unfortunate random act of violence becomes complicated when a prominent attorney who is a veteran of the antiwar movement joins the defense team. Long-buried secrets about covert missions and war crimes become the focus of the investigation, and Maggie searches for Richard's former buddies to try to understand what happened to her husband so long ago. Her own involvement with the antiwar movement in college ties her to parts of a past that unfold during the trial. Very involving, although the secrets can unroll with frustrating deliberateness; recommended for most fiction collections. [The publisher is associated with the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg Cty. Ed.] Ann H. Fisher, Redford P.L., VA --Library Journal

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Novello Festival Press; 1 edition (October 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0976096390
• ISBN-13: 978-0976096399
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,715,037 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Miriam Herin was born in Miami, Florida. Her first novel, ABSOLUTION, won the Novello Literary Award and was published in 2007. She has lived in Florida, Northern Virginia, South Carolina, New York City and North Carolina. She is currently at work on a new novel set in the mid-19th century about a Charleston slave girl who finds her way to Florida to search for her Muskogee Indian father in the midst of the Second Seminole Indian War.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superb book, May 10, 2008

By 

J. N. Frederick (Charlotte, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Absolution (Hardcover)

"Absolution" is superb. It's a wonderful and unusual combination of compelling story and character analysis that is extremely deep and thought provoking. I knew at a certain point I'd have to keep reading to finish it, no matter how late at night, and that's what happened.

The book captures so well the epistemological and ethical limits in which we humans inevitably live, whether in the wartime of Vietnam or the United States of today.

This is brilliant, wonderful writing. The book is superb.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, February 21, 2008

By 

Elizabeth Pinson - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Absolution (Hardcover)

Miriam Herin's "Absolution" is rich in everything that makes a novel a gripping, good read. Herin skillfully weaves a mystery that centers on a widow's struggle to find the truth behind her husband's violent death. It's a journey of the mind, winding its way through her husband's devastating past in Vietnam, the anti-war movement in the United States, and the swirling intricacies of lives steeped in both. Herin's characters are intriguing, her insight into grief and mending comfortingly real.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing read, January 14, 2009

By 

Julianne A. Joyce "Julianne Joyce" (Greensboro, NC) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Absolution (Hardcover)

This book had me hooked from the very start. Many novels that attempt to weave in different parts of time seem to struggle to do it well, but the past and present connected seamlessly in this one. I love all of the contrasts...the protagonist's past and current selves, her pacifism and her husband's military history, and particularly the husband she thought she knew well and the husband who had secrets. There were some unexpected twists that were well explained, but the author never comes across as pedantic. Overall, I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys an engrossing story.