Letter From Home [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Carolyn G. Hart (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2, 2004

A New York Times Bestselling Author

World-renowned journalist G. G. Gilman does her best not to think of the past. But one day she gets a letter -- sent from the small Oklahoma town where she grew up -- that brings it all back. Memories of people she had once known and loved dearly -- and of the sultry summer when her life changed forever.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hart has created a fabulous two-in-one: an excellent mystery and the poignant memoirs of her heroine, Gretchen Grace Gilman. A letter received by the now elderly newshound extraordinaire returns her physically, mentally and emotionally to her past and to her hometown in northeastern Oklahoma. As the pages of the letter unfold, so does the story of Gretchen's summer of 1944. With every able-bodied male involved in the war effort, Gazette editor Walt Dennis agrees to give 13-year-old Gretchen a shot as a newspaper reporter. But the sleepy town is soon rocked by the murder of Faye Tatum, an artist and the mom of Gretchen's friend and neighbor Barb. To make matters worse, the prime suspect is Barb's dad, Clyde, home on leave but nowhere to be found after the murder. Political ambitions spur the county attorney and the sheriff to track down Clyde and arrest him, while less hasty Chief Fraser is more interested in first sorting through all the facts. The obviously well-researched history draws the reader into this atypical whodunit. Characters are Steinbeck vivid, as is the sense of time and place. Hart masterfully portrays an American small town during WWII.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"If I were teaching a course on how to write a mystery, I would make Carolyn Hart required reading."
-- Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles Times )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 367 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press; 1 edition (February 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 078626201X
• ISBN-13: 978-0786262014
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,978,113 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Carolyn Hart talks about mysteries and writing in a new interview on Oklahoma public tv. Please visit www.CarolynHart.com and click on the link in the upper right hand column.

In April Berkley Prime Crime will publish DEATH COMES SILENTLY, the 22nd Death on Demand title. Coming in October is WHAT THE CAT SAW, a novel of suspense.

Carolyn writes the Death on Demand series set in a mystery bookstore on a South Carolina sea island and the Bailey Ruth Raeburn series featuring a lively redheaded ghost.

Carolyn is also the author of several WWII novels, including ESCAPE FROM PARIS which is now available for the first time in its complete uncut version. Escape from Paris is the story of two sisters who defy the Gestapo to help British fliers avoid capture.

In Ghost at Work, Bailey Ruth returns to earth to help someone in trouble. She moves a body, investigates a murder, saves a marriage, prevents a suicide, and--in a fiery finale--rescues a child who knows too much. In Merry, Merry Ghost, Bailey Ruth protects a little boy from danger. In Ghost in Trouble, Bailey Ruth tries to corral a wilful woman determined to play hunt-the-killer. Coming in 2013 is HIJACKED GHOST which puts Bailey Ruth at risk of ever returning to Heaven.

Letter from Home, a WWII novel set on the home front, received the Agatha Award for Best Mystery of 2003. It was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize by the Oklahoma Center for Poets and Writers. Thirteen-year-old Gretchen Gilman is working for the small-town newspaper during the hot summer of 1944. Murder occurs on the street where she lives, forever changing her life and the lives of those involved.

Hart was one of 10 mystery authors featured at the National Book Festival on the Mall in Washington, DC, in 2003 for Letter from Home and again in 2007 for Set Sail for Murder, 7th in the Henrie O series. In Set Sail for Murder (new in paperback March 2008), Henrie O joins a troubled family on a Baltic cruise and death is an unwelcome passenger.

Hart has been nominated 9 times for the Agatha Award for Best Novel and has won 3 times. In 2007 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award at Malice Domestic. She will be the International Guest of Honor at Bloody Words in Toronto on June 6-8, 2008.

Hart is a native of Oklahoma City, a journalism graduate of the University of Oklahoma, and a former president of Sisters in Crime. She is also a member of Authors Guild, Mystery Writers of America, the International Association of Crime Writers, and American Crime Writers League.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So Much More Than A Mystery, November 8, 2003

By 

Pat Stelzer (Springfield, OH, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Letter from Home (Hardcover)

Just finished reading Carolyn Hart's Letter From Home and wanted to share my views about it. It is so much more than a good mystery. This is a wonderfully warm, in depth study of people caught up in the emotional turmoil and pain created by WWII. Having lived through that period as a child, the book evoked memories I had almost forgotten existed. This book is one that lingers with the reader, provoking thoughts long after the last page is read and the cover is closed. The book captures the pain of separation and the changes in society caused by war both on the home front and by active duty in the military. It also deals with the changing role of women and the loss of innocence as seen through the eyes of a young teen living in a small town where the impact is so widespread throughout the community. It could also be termed a coming-of-age story when a young woman is forced to see her neighbors, friends and family with their flaws, weaknesses and strengths exposed by the war and the murder that change lives forever. I can well understand why this book has been nominated for a Pulitzer and has been compared to Steinbeck's work. The format of the book is very different, and I would recommend this work to anyone who lived through that era or has an historical interest in the period. It captures the essence of the times wrapped around a very good mystery and leaves no doubt that Carolyn Hart's talent as a writer goes beyond the ability to entertain mystery lovers.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars an engrossing read, October 9, 2003

By 

tregatt (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Letter from Home (Hardcover)

Even though Carolyn Hart is a well known mystery novelist (authour of the Henrie O. & Death on Demand mystery novels), and even though the shocking murder of Faye Tatum is the central focus of "Letter From Home," this particular novel is not really a 'straight' mystery novel. If you're expecting a plethora of perplexing clues, red herring suspects and a few intriguing plot twist and turns, be forewarned, "Letter From Home" has very few of these stock plot props. What "Letter From Home" does possess, however, is a gripping story about how the particular events of the summer of 1944 changed the lives of two particular young girls: 14 year old Gretchen Gilman and 16 year old Barbara Tatum.

More than 50 years later, journalist Gretchen Gilman receives a letter from her old home town in Oklahoma, reminding her of the shocking events from the summer of 1944. The war was in full swing, the young men were constantly leaving in order to join up, and many of the women have left to work in the factories at other towns; which is precisely why Gretchen is able to land a summer job as the Gazette's newest cub reporter. Gretchen is happy and proud -- she desperately wants to become a real reporter after she graduates, and this is her first real step towards achieving that goal. And then Gretchen's world is rocked when a friend's mother is brutally murdered.

Faye Tatum was a bit unconventional for the small town she lived in -- she was an artist, more concerned about her art than maintaining a showroom house and garden. Faye also spoke her mind and didn't suffer fools gladly, much to the fury of the town's preacher, the Reverend Byars. And then Faye is found brutally strangled in her living room. Almost at once scandalous stories about how Faye went out dancing at the Blue Light (a place respectable married women just didn't go) even though her husband was away at a training camp, and of a man seen going into and coming from the Tatum residence late at night, begin to circulate. And when it becomes known that Clyde (Faye's husband, home of furlough) has disappeared, and that he and Faye had quarreled bitterly the night before she was murdered about her frequenting the Blue Light, everyone is sure that Clyde had strangled Faye in anger. Only Barbara refuses to believe that her father had anything to do with her mother's death. But as the hours slip by and political pressure mounts on the police to find Clyde and to quickly resolve Faye's murder, Gretchen cannot help but fear that no one really shares in Barbara's belief in her father's innocence, and that the real killer just may get away with murder...

"Letter From Home" proved to be a gripping read, even if it wasn't a 'straight' mystery novel. From the very first page, when Gretchen starts remembering what happened that fateful summer to the very last page when she finally learns who really killed Faye Tatum, I was enthralled. Carolyn Hart did a magnificent job in evoking the atmosphere and feel of what it was like to live in a small town in the war torn 1940s -- the fears, the giddy need to feel alive, the emptiness of lost dreams, the rigid need to control smaller aspects of one's life, and to have everyone around you conform -- the authour captures all this wonderfully. Her character portrayals were brilliant too, esp her character portrayal of the murdered woman, Faye Tatum. Given that we don't actually 'meet' Faye until after she's been murdered, the very fact that Faye's vivid character seems so alive, manages to holds "Letter From Home" together, propels the story forward, is a testament of Ms Hart's excellence as a storyteller. Briskly paced, "Letter From Home" was an absorbing and engrossing read not to be missed.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worthy of a Pulitzer Prize, November 20, 2003

By 

Laurie Banton (Indianapolis, Indiana United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Letter from Home (Hardcover)

LETTER FROM HOME is a literary treasure dealing with American life during World War II in small town Oklahoma. Accurate in detail, brimming with emotion, I love the way the story is told in an original style that adds to the suspense. Carolyn Hart encourages readers to deduce character and motivation not from claim and assertion but from what they observe. These characters come alive! A distinguished novel, already nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, LETTER FROM HOME would make a long-lasting gift.