Customer Reviews

The Scent of Rain and Lightning: A Novel

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The Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Pickard was the best novel I've read in a long time. The first couple of pages grabbed me--there was no reading half the book before I decided I liked it. Pickard writes in an easy style about people and life in Kansas, but it could be any rural/ranching setting. The characters were described so perfectly that I felt like I grew up with them. This is a murder mystery, but it's definitely not your typical who-done-it. The plot unfolds gently--no harsh, sharp twists and turns. It's also a love story and a story of a close-knit family. It has everything but nothing is contrived; it's all very natural and believable. I think the best way to describe the book is that it's a gentle, easy story about some ungentle events. I can understand why Pickard has received so many awards. She is a great American author; in my opinion on the same level as Twain and Steinbeck. This book is a MUST READ.

I recommend this book very highly.

Jody Linder is shocked and horrified to find that Billy Crosby, the man convicted of killing her father and probably her mother, is out of prison and going to be retried. She was three when the murder happened and knows only what she has been told by her family. Billy's son, Collin, was seven at the time, and became an attorney when he grew up. He convinced a judge that Billy was unfairly convicted.

Jody discovered that many people had thought that Billy was too drunk to do the murder, but were perfectly happy to see him go to prison. He was very hot-tempered, had a chip on his shoulder, was a drunkard and a nasty drunk at that, a wife abuser, and always felt that he didn't do anything wrong. The townspeople are uneasy that he is out of prison and back in town.

A lot of history is uncovered, and you finally discover exactly what happened that night years earlier.

Nancy Pickard writes great stories. I've never read one that disappointed me.

There was plenty to like in this book; the Linders, the family at the center of this story, are a large, lovable, humorous and real family, and I loved reading about them. Pickard does a flawless job with the landscape and the portrayal of cattle ranching. She has a terrific ear for dialog. But at about midway, it seemed the clues were being dropped so heavily that I could almost hear them landing. I decided I'd figured out the entire mystery. It turned out that I was absolutely wrong in what I'd thought, which should have been a good thing, yes? But near the end, the book veered off into a story that was so unlikely and melodramatic that I was rolling my eyes. I felt very let down by how the story developed and ended.

The Scent of Rain and Lightning centers around the murders of Hugh-Jay and Laurie Linder, a young husband and wife with a small daughter. Twenty years later, when the convicted killer's verdict is overturned and he is released, the victims' family members, including their now adult daughter Jody, who barely remembers her parents, are forced to come to terms with what really happened 20 years ago and the truth about their loved ones.

I thought this novel was surprisingly good. I particularly enjoyed the exploration of the difference between innocent and not guilty, a rather tricky moral question. The main characters, including Jody and her murdered parents are intricate and convincing, and the supporting characters all have a sense of depth that is often missing from this type of half mystery-half family drama. I found the conclusion to the book's central mystery suprising and satisfying, but I thought the way the characters eventually uncovered the truth was far-fetched and unrealistic. Still, this book was well worth reading, and I'd encourage other to read it.

Is Nancy Pickard's latest book a literary novel with an interesting mystery, or is it a mystery with unusual depth? I am not sure, but I AM sure that it is a great read!

The basic story is that young Jody Linder has returned to her small ranching town of Rose, Kansas, to teach English. Soon after she moves into the family home that she inherited from her parents at the age of three after her father was murdered and her mother disappeared, her uncles give her the unwelcome news that Billy Crosby, who had been convicted of killing her father and was presumed to have killed her mother, has been released from prison and given a new trial thanks to the efforts of his son Collin, who was 7 when his father went to prison and who is now an attorney. The book then shifts between present-day 2009 and 1986, the time leading up to and following the murders.

The suspense is handled beautifully. The reader becomes aware of the murders in Chapter 1, in which her uncles tell Jody about Billy Crosby's impending release. In the next section, which switches to 1986, the reader is introduced to both the likeable and the less attractive members of the Linder family. I was caught up both by the interesting relationships within the clan and by the growing suspense of "When is this murder going to happen and how?" "Am I going to learn if Crosby really did it?" The story then turns into an exploration of the effects of this brutal event on the Linder and Crosby families and, indeed, the whole town. The suspense is provided by trying to decide "whodunit" , and Pickard gives us a number of reasonable possibilities.

In addition to a well-told tale of relationships and a satisfying puzzle, Kansan Pickard gives us a nicely painted picture of a Kansas ranching community, which I found intriguing, being accustomed to associating ranching with Texas or other more western states (I know---Kansas stockyards, etc., but who stops to think about where the stock came from?).

Pickard does all these things well, but the ultimate test of a mystery, to me, is the denouement. Is it credible, and did she keep me guessing? I would answer Yes to both questions.

Since Ms. Pickard is regularly nominated for Edgar Awards, The Scent of Rain and Lightning will probably be shelved in the Mystery section. If so, that is a shame because both mystery buffs and general readers should enjoy this book, and it deserves the broader audience.

Nancy Pickard's fast-paced mysteries have always had a depth of character that lifts them out of the run of the mill for the genre. This novel has action and suspense, but it's really about character, feelings, and the connection between past events and present effects.

In this case, the past events include murder. The survivors cope, but the effects are far-reaching, and different for each of them. When the convicted murderer successfully appeals to open the case, old wounds are also reopened, with surprising results.

The book is set in a rural community, and particularly on a cattle ranch. I don't know enough to say whether the local color is authentic or not, but it's certainly rich and evocative. There are generous doses of family dynamics, class relations, and male-female issues to keep things complex.

This will be an excellent choice for book clubs.

The Scent of Rain and Lightning is a very good read. I have read all Nancy Pickard's books and they get better and better. This book like many of her books is set in Kansas.Jody Linder was brought up by her grandparents, the rich and powerful Hugh and Annabelle Linder, after her father Hugh-Jay was murdered and her mother disappeared when Jody was a toddler. The murder was blamed on Billy Crosby. a ranch hand who had a grudge against the Linders. The book starts with the news that Billy Crosby is coming back to town for a new trial with his son, now a lawyer defending him. From there the book flashbacks from the murder to the present. Many things are not what they seem and in the end, the real murderer is revealed. I was surprised because the murderer was to me the least likely suspect. The book is a very enjoyable read, read either as a novel or murder mystery.

Jody Linder was three years old when her father was murdered and her mother disappeared. And for the past 23 years, the man who was convicted of the murder, town drunk Billy Crosby, has languished in jail while his son, Colin, grew up in the same town as Jody. Now, Colin has become a successful lawyer and has managed to get his father released from prison on the grounds that prosecution withheld evidence from the defense that might have exonerated Billy way back when. All of a sudden, Jody found herself face-to-face with the man she believed to have killed her father for 23 years and secrets that were buried long ago are being dragged to the surface again. Is it possible that maybe, just maybe, they got the wrong guy after all? And what is she to do with the attractions she's always felt towards Colin, even while their past made it impossible for them to even be friends?

To me, the biggest problem with this book is the structure. The book started out with Jody's uncles visiting her and telling her about Billy's release from prison. Then, it flashed back twenty three years to introduce the readers to the different members of the Linder family. As the author described in detail what each Linder did on the fateful days that led up to the murder, a picture begin to emerge; not only of the Linders as a family, but also of the town of Rose, Kansas, which is almost like a character in itself. This is easily the best part of the book as each characters comes alive under the author's masterful pen.

About halfway through the story, however, the focus is shifted back to the present-day and that's when the book began to falter. I found both Jody and Colin to be very likable and interesting characters. But instead of focusing on them and their efforts to shed some light on the murder, the author introduced an unnecessary plot element that not only took the focus away from Jody and Colin, but also melodramatized what until now has been mostly a character-driven story. Then, as Jody starts to ask questions around the town and is on the verge of unravelling the mystery, the author again took the focus away from her and flashed back to 23 years ago to reveal the answers to the mystery. For me, this took the suspense completely out of the mystery as the readers are fed the answer first. After that point, watching the characters in the book trying to figure the mystery out can no longer be an interesting exercise. To add insult to injury, when Jody do finally manage to figure things out, the way in which it happened happened so suddently and is hinged so much on contrivances that it is almost like the author has run up against the deadline and needs to wrap everything up in the hurry.

So in summation, while I really enjoyed the first half of the book, the 2nd half was a let down for me and made this a book that I cannot recommend.

I very much enjoyed Nancy Pickard's last book "The Virgin of Small Plains," so I was eagerly awaiting the publication of "The Scent of Lightning and Rain." This book does not disappoint.

The story concerns Jody Linder, a young woman raised by her grandparents after her father was murdered and her mother went missing and was presumed dead. When the man who was jailed for the murder of her father is released from prison because his verdict is overturned, Jody, her remaining family, and the residents of Rose, Kansas are forced to reconsider awful events they thought they had put behind them.

Much of the book is told in flashback, as we learn about Jody's family and the circumstances of her parents' fates. Pickard drops enough clues to keep the reader wondering whodunnit, but the real strength of this book is the characters. The author is masterful at depicting the complicated relationships between family members, lovers, and neighbors, and she is honest by showing the good and the bad in people. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I hope Pickard does not make us wait as long for her next one.

Nancy Pickard's (The Virgin of Small Plains) newest offering, `The Scent of Rain and Lightning,' is a mystery novel that could well have been snatched from today's headlines. A convicted murderer is granted a new trial and returns to the small Kansas town where over twenty years earlier a young rancher was killed and his wife went missing. The novel details the impact of his release on the victim's family, the town, and his own wife and son.

Much of Pickard's early story is told in the style of `In Cold Blood' (which she references); it is matter-of-fact and intentionally low key - a style that served Capote well as he highlighted the contrast between a sensational crime and the slow pace of everyday Kansas life. Unfortunately, the style doesn't work as well for Pickard; her early pages are a bit too slow to sustain reader interest.

The story centers around Jody Linder, who, as a child of three, lost both parents in a single night. She has always assumed that justice was served and Billy Crosby will serve a life sentence for her father's death. It comes to a shock to Jody to learn that not everyone in town is convinced of Billy's guilt and that he may well deserve a new trial. Add to this her attraction to Billy's son Collin and the obvious question of guilt that arises if Billy isn't the murderer and we have the basis of the plot.

The strength of Pickard's novel is her depiction of Kansas. Her details are true, her characters real, and the reader never has the sense that she's just adding details to pad her novel. In many ways, Kansas is her novel. Those who love the Midwest and those who are tired of mysteries set in the `usual places' will enjoy Pickard's strong sense of place.

However, Pickard's understated style can ring a bit flat and is lacking in excitement. I never felt compelled to go on to the next chapter.