Customer Reviews

Shadows on the River

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Fourteen-year-old Ally Roarke witnessed a horrific murder. When she came forward to tell others that Larry Fremont, one of the most popular and wealthy boys in the town pushed her best friend off a bridge, no one would believe her story and Larry was never tried for his crime. Many years later, Ally discovers that Larry may have killed again. But Ally is not fourteen any longer and she can't let Larry get away with murder again.

Ally, though wanting to do the right thing, is fearful of facing the powerful Fremont family after all this time. She might be a successful and respected boat designer as well as a mother of a ten-year-old daughter, but Ally finds herself dreading the confrontation. Enter fellow designer, Mark Bishop, who is more than willing to help Ally face her past and face her reasons for turning her back on God.

Linda Hall's books hold such wonderful characters and Shadows on the River is no exception. They are emotionally scarred, yet so real and vivid you invest all your energy and emotions into their lives and want them to succeed. She also paints such intense scenes with her descriptions that you feel like you are present. She combines all of this with suspense plots that are creative, not easy to solve and keep you turning the pages.

Hall's books have the power to grab you from the first page and keep you reading regardless of what's going on in the world around you. The only thing I do not like about Hall's books is that I find myself at the end of the book long before I want to get there. The good news is she keeps writing more of them so I can delve into the pages and get wrapped up in her characters again.

Not as predictable as I assumed when first starting to read it. Very emotional in that you can feel Ally's pain as she suffers the loss of her friend and no one believes in her. As her life unfolds it's easy to see why she turns away from God the way many people do. But, as in real life, she finds that God still loves her and has been there for her all along.

Probably my favorite of the Shadows series, but still not as intricate or suspenseful as her regular books...but then I know not to expect that from Love Inspired. :-)

Shadows on the River
Linda Hall
[..]
Steeple Hill Books
2009
Christian Fiction/Mystery/Suspense
ISBN 13:978-0-373-4436-9

Reviewed by Cindy Loven

Twenty five years earlier Ally saw her best friend fall to her death and Ally's life was forever changed. Sure that the boy her friend was with had pushed her friend to her death, she is amazed and dismayed that she is not believed and her family is ostracized.
Fast forward 25 years and Ally is now an adult, an engineer who designs boats and is raising her deaf daughter alone, after a failed marriage. Right in the middle of a huge snow storm, there is a news story about the man who pushed her friend and he is involved in another suspicious death. All her fears and doubts arise as she is sure that this too is murder, and she finds herself right in the middle of the entire thing. Threats against her daughter and herself, then someone breaking into her home to take her childhood diary, throw Ally into a tailspin.
Add in a gorgeous young man, Mark, who works with her, who also has a mysterious past with the same man, and there is the potential for romance, but the main story for me was about Ally, rediscovering her faith. After her friend died and her family was shunned by the local church, she was mad at God, then a failed marriage and a handicapped child, did not help matters any. But as she stumbles her way through discovering the truth in this mystery, Ally finds herself facing the loss of her faith, and turning back to God.
This story was a wonderful book and definitely a 4 star rating. 216 pages [...]

Great 3part series this is book 3 of the "shadows".
Please read all three--you dont have to read in order!
Great Kindle price of $4each--happy reading

I haven't read the book yet, but I look forward to reading it. I know it
will be good.