One September Morning [Paperback]

Rosalind Noonan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2009

The moment Abby Fitzgerald sees two soldiers approach her front door, she knows her husband is dead. John Stanton, who gave up his career as a star NFL running back to serve after 9/11, has been killed in Iraq. Suddenly Abby's kitchen is overflowing with casseroles brought by the army wives' club to which she has never really belonged. And her in-laws arrange a lavish funeral at Arlington National Cemetery, in spite of Abby's misgivings. John had grown to hate the war even though he loved his country, and Abby can't reconcile the complex man she knew with the version being portrayed by self-serving politicians, military, and the media.Shell-shocked, Abby strives to cope with her own heartache while comforting John's loved ones, including his mother Sharice, his staunchly anti-war sister Madison, and his bitter younger brother Noah. But amidst her loss is a growing conviction that the truth about John's death is far from over. Gripping, thoughtful, and emotionally powerful, "One September Morning" is a story of loyalty and betrayal, of a shattered family's journey toward healing, and of the courage it takes to confront the truth not just about our enemies, but about those we love best.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Noonan's timely debut tells the Pat Tillmanesque tale of a football star turned soldier gunned down in Iraq by friendly fire. Abby, John Stanton's widowed wife, wants answers from the tight-lipped military who insist John was killed by an insurgent, and John's parents want him lauded in a hero's burial in Arlington cemetery. Meanwhile, the real killer, a psychopath in John's battalion, comes home and wants to take over John's once-charmed life. Written with great insight into military families and the constant struggle between supporting the troops but not the war, Noonan delivers a fast-paced, character-driven tale with a touch of mystery. Her only misstep is revealing the killer's identity too early—a forgivable sin in this otherwise respectable drama. (Jan.)
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From Booklist

Being the wife of a soldier is not how Abby expected her life to turn out. Her husband, John, was a star football player from Rutgers playing with the Seattle Seahawks when he decided to join the army à la Pat Tillman. September 11 deeply impacted John, and now Abby is alone in Fort Lewis, Washington, studying for a master’s degree in psychology. She is stunned when she learns of John’s death. As her mother-in-law plans a lavish hero’s funeral, Abby, haunted by visions of John, struggles to deal with the tragedy only to be stymied by the lack of cooperation from the army. Flint, a college friend who is now a reporter embedded with the troops, tells Abby that John’s demise may have been set up by a member of his platoon who has set his sights on Abby and John’s family. Noonan creates a unique thriller that is anti–Iraq War and pro-soldier, a novel that focuses on the toll war takes on returning soldiers and civilians whose loved ones won’t be coming home. --Patty Engelmann

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Kensington (January 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0758209290
• ISBN-13: 978-0758209290
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #684,508 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

ROSALIND NOONAN grew up in suburban Maryland and enjoyed being part of a large family. "With my four siblings, Saturday mornings were a blast," she says. "There was festival seating on the living room floor as we devoured cartoons and passed the Sugar Pops." She caught the writing bug in second grade when she won first place in a poetry contest. "The prize was twenty dollars," she recalls. "That was big bucks for a second grader. I thought I was going to Disneyland." Wooed by the taste of fame and fortune, she kept writing.

After attending Wagner College in Staten Island, she remained in New York City where she worked as an editor for various book publishers. Noonan currently lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, a retired cop from the NYPD, and two children. Although she sometimes misses the rapid pulse of New York, she enjoys writing in the shade of towering two-hundred year old Douglas fir trees.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Captivating and Suspenseful, May 29, 2009

By 

Karen Zemek "Author of 'My Funny Dad, Harry'" (Parma, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: One September Morning (Paperback)

I really liked this book about an army widow who wasn't satisfied with the army's report on her husband's death in Iraq and uncovered some disturbing facts about how he really died. It also included the effects of his death on his family and how his feelings about the war in Iraq changed during his service there. This book gave some insight into the Iraq war and gave me a new perspective on it. This book is a bit of a mystery because at first you don't know which soldier is the killer and then it turns to suspense as the killer puts his plan into action. I read this in two days because it was captivating and I liked Abby, the main character who was the army widow. I recommend this to anyone who likes mysteries, suspense, PTSD, stories about military families or psychos.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Right vs. Wrong -- Timely Issues..., February 7, 2009

By 

Laurel-Rain Snow "Rain" "Rainy Days" (Fresno, California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: One September Morning (Paperback)

Our story begins in Iraq, where we meet a mysterious, nameless and faceless character, who is gloating - yes, even exhilarating - in the death of someone who is popular, well-loved, and a soldier...

We next zero in on a young woman, Abby Fitzgerald, who is counting down the days until her husband, John Stanton, returns from Iraq.

In a startling tumble of events, the tragedy unfolds. A hero's fall - supposedly gunned down by a sniper - and the pain and loss of family members as they receive the news are the immediate results.

Abby's in-laws, Jim and Sharice Stanton; their daughter Madison, who questions the war in Iraq and even protests occasionally; and then Abby herself...all of them are reeling in the aftermath of this death. And then there is Noah, the younger brother, who is still in Iraq. He had enlisted, along with his brother, and now he is left...questioning everything he thought was right.

When the military establishment provides no answers - indeed, when there seems to be a cover-up - Abby, Madison, eventually even Sharice...each begin to search for their own resolution.

When Noah returns for the funeral, he seems more than a little distressed...so when he leaves afterwards, headed to Canada to join other "deserters" and "protesters", even his father, a member of the military establishment himself - now retired - understands, even though he cannot agree.

But Emjay Brown, the soldier who was with John Stanton when he was shot, has a completely different version of events than the one the military is handing down...he claims that John was killed by "friendly fire" - and not only friendly, but someone in his own platoon.

What will the establishment do to prevent the truth from coming out? And why is someone, also back from Iraq, claiming to be John's best friend, someone who suddenly seems to be moving in on Abby's life and attempting to take it over, turning extremely bizarre as he moves in on John Stanton's territory?

With each page I turned, the suspense intensified, until I could not turn them fast enough...to discover the truth, and to see resolution of the anguish for the survivors.

One September Morning is a poignant and timely tale of the wrongs that can be done in the name of "right."

Laurel-Rain Snow
Author of: Web of Tyranny, etc.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars deep look at the military family member on the home front, January 2, 2009

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: One September Morning (Paperback)

Following 9/11 NFL running back John Stanton informs his wife Abby and his parents that he is giving up his football career and his multimillion dollar contract to enlist in the army. After training, he and his unit deploy in Iraq where he is killed in a friendly fire incident. The officers who inform Abby of her husband's death insist he was a hero killed by insurgents.

The Wives' Club provides a grieving Abby with support while her in-laws demand Arlington National Cemetery, which the military is elated to provide. However, Abby begins to find discrepancies in the official report especially since her spouse was disenchanted with a war that made no sense. As she begins to demand the truth, the Wives' Club and her in-laws demand she shut up before she taints the image of a hero while John's two siblings encourage her to keep probing. Meanwhile, the maniac who deliberately murdered John has come to town to live the life of the late football star.

The obvious Pat Tillman connection aside, ONE SEPTEMBER MORNING is an insightful look at some modern military dependents struggling between support to their loved ones and their opposition to the Iraq War. The characters are fully developed and clearly divided. Most of Stanton's unit and their families want Abby to go away while his parents want nothing to taint their son the hero. Abby needs the truth and her anti war sister-in-law pushes her to keep asking. Although the psychopath provides added tension that takes a way from an otherwise deep look at the family member on the home front while a loved one is in a combat zone.

Harriet Klausner