Customer Reviews

Simple Secrets: Can Love Overcome Evil in the Mennonite Town of Harmony, Kansas? (The Harmony Series, Book 1)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This first book in Nancy Mehl's latest Christian mystery series is a charmer. Somehow, she manages to pair the perfect characters with the ideal location, then bring them all to life with delightful results. Harmony, Kansas is as much a key character here as Gracie Temple, Mehl's latest series heroine.

Gracie Temple is a graphic designer at a mid-level advertising firm in Wichita, Kansas. She dreams of setting the design world on fire with her creations, but so far that has not happened. Still, Gracie loves her work, loves living in Wichita with all its noise and urban sprawl. When an uncle she never met dies and leaves his property to Gracie, a trip to the boonies is the last thing on her to-do list but she decides to visit Harmony out of curiosity. Her Uncle Benjamin had shunned his relatives since before Gracie's birth. Why? And why leave his property to a niece he'd never met?

Harmony turns out to be a picture perfect little Mennonite village full of happy, quirky people. Some live and dress plain in the Old Order Mennonite way. Others have assimilated modern amenities like TV, phones, and electricity into their lifestyle. The beauty of Benjamin's home and furnishings come as a pleasant surprise. The town folk are friendly and welcoming. On the surface, Harmony seems peaceful and idyllic, but under that perfect surface Gracie senses turmoil. Dark secrets, long hidden, come to light when Gracie finds a letter addressed to her from Uncle Benjamin. An evil man was murdered and buried on Benjamin's property decades ago, and he believed Gracie's father was the killer. She refuses to accept that supposition as fact and begins her own investigation into the past.

Who killed Jacob Glick, and why? Could it have been Sweetie Goodrich, Benjamin's hard faced, soft hearted neighbor? Why does Pastor Abel Mueller's wife go pale each time Jacob Glick's name is mentioned? And can Gracie trust Sweetie's nephew, Sam Goodrich, the roughly handsome fruit farmer? I followed all the hints and red herrings to the wrong conclusions and never did figure out the mystery until Ms. Mehl solved it for me.

Nancy Mehl is my favorite Christian mystery writer for valid reasons. Characters are interesting and complex. The location is intriguing and integral to the storyline. Dialog is realistic, narrative well-written and fast-paced. I eagerly anticipate Book Two of this series, Simple Deceit. Highly recommended to lovers of Christian mysteries or good story telling.

SIMPLE SECRETS by Nancy Mehl is a Inspirational romance/mystery set in modern day Harmony, Kansas. It is the first in The Harmony Series which is fictional town in Kansas, it is about the secrets of this small Mennonite town. It has mystery, romance, secrets, forgiveness, family and the old quote "the truth will set you free". It is well written with depth and detail,fast paced and a page turner. This small Mennonite town is warm, caring, has a truckload of secrets, but this would be a wonderful town to live in, grow up in and raise a family. The characters are also warm, caring and will pull you into the story and feel their heartbreak, their joys, their triumphs and hurt. I would highly recommend this book, especially if you enjoy Mennonite stories, which is simpler to the Amish ways but not as strict. This book was received for review and details can be found at My Book Addiction and More and Barbour Publishing.

If you're looking for a good mystery to sink your teeth into, then don't pass up this book. Nancy Mehl has prepared a wonderful meal, but be warned: like any enjoyable meal, "Simple Secrets" is the first course in this series from Harmony, Kansas but stay seated at the table because "Simple Deceit" is the next course (and one that I can't wait to enjoy). And Nancy...my compliments to the chef!

I didn't know what to expect of a romantic suspense book set in a Mennonite community. What I found was a tale with plenty of twists and turns to keep me happily turning the pages. The characters are interesting and believable. The setting is a quaint little town in Kansas. The heart of the story revolves around a mystery that has gone unanswered for most of a generation. The romance is big city girl meets down-to-earth farm boy. It all comes together in a book I can highly recommend for older teens and adults. I would not recommend this one for younger teens due to some non-offensive but mature content.

I read Simple Secrets with my book club. I have to say it was a great book. The mystery kept me guessing till the very end! I just couldn't put it down!!! You cannot go wrong choosing this book!!! I cannot wait till the other 2 books in the series come out. Thank you Nancy Mehl for a great read!!

Mehl's romantic suspense novel lives up to that genre! When Gracie Temple leaves Wichita and travels to Harmony, Kansas, she expects to be back in two weeks. She expects to take care of her inherited house in Mennonite territory, but she never thought she would embrace the way of life which she discovers in Harmony. She wasn't expecting to meet Sam Goodrich or to find a letter from her late uncle suggesting that her father was a murderer. Gracie finds herself knee deep in a mystery that has been buried for years but has held the community in its grip. A page turner that you won't be able to put down!

I loved my first visit to Harmony, Kansas. I totally enjoyed this novel in so many ways. The characters are so interesting and comfortable. The setting is beautiful and even though the author made this town up, it is so real and so well described that I totally wish it were a real town, I would visit in a heartbeat.

Nancy Mehl is an excellent author. Her stories are well written and reading them is time well spent. Her books are ones that I keep and treasure and will read over and over. They are some of the best written fiction out there today. They inspire and give hope because of the wonderful references to God. Its so refreshing to read about a person who has problems but is willing to give those problems to God and seek help in the right direction and do the right thing rather than read about someone floundering and making wrong decisions at every turn. Her books bless me and I think they will do the same for others who enjoy a well-written story with a bent toward seeking solutions with God at the helm.

Simple Secrets is a very well written christian mystery that takes place in Harmony Kansas a small Mennonite community.
When Gracie Temple inherits her uncles property in Harmony she is sort of surprised. She had never met this uncle, when her family left the Mennonite community years before her uncle decided to stay and never contacted anyone in the family again.
Gracie decides she will take a quick trip to dispose of the house and collect some family heirlooms, but once she arrives she finds a letter left to her by her uncle that discloses the murder of a man named Jacob Glick, and her uncle Ben believed that Gracie's dad murdered this man, so to hide the murder Ben buried the man on his property and then spent the rest of his life keeping a secret to protect his brother.
Gracie is sure that her dad is in no way responsible for the murder, but who is ? Can she trust her new found friend Sam Goodrich to help her figure out who the real murderer is?
The author throws out several suspects for us to choose from, but this is no easy mystery to solve, I thought I had it right but was surprised at the end.
This is a very fast paced read full of mystery, suspense, romance and also a glance at the Mennonite community. The author keeps you guessing right up till the end trying to figure out who the murderer actually is.
I loved my visit to Harmony and look forward to reading the next book in this great Mennonite series titled Simple Deceit due out 12/10.
Thanks to Netgalley for allowing me to read this book.

A city girl and a country boy unite to solve a long buried crime in the Mennonite town of Harmony, Kansas.
I really enjoyed reading this book. I found the characters believable and easy to connect with.

Gracie Temple is a graphics designer in Wichita. Her father calls and gives her the news that his brother Benjamin, whom she has never met, has died and left Gracie his estate. She makes plans to go to Harmony and see what she has inherited. Her initial reaction is to sell the house right away. But she decides to take a week or so to look things over and make up her mind.

When she rolls into Harmony she decides to look around a bit before going to Benjamin's house. The town she sees is not the town her father had described. There are shops all up and down the street, people everywhere, some dressed in the traditional Mennonite fashion she was familiar with, and others dressed "normally". She gets a lot of stares but she figures it's because she is the stranger in town.

After getting settled in and meeting a couple of her neighbors she finds a letter that her uncle left her. He tells her something in that letter that changes everything! Who was Jacob Glick and why is his body buried on her property? Who is the real killer? Why does everyone in town act so strange when she mentions the name of Jacob Glick? Can she even trust her closest friend in Harmony, Sam Goodrich? Gracie and Sam follow clues and do some digging to try and find the answers.

As I read this book, I was drawn into the town and into the lives of the people of Harmony. I could smell the fried chicken that Sam's aunt, Sweetie Goodrich, was cooking. I could see the rooms of Sweetie and Sam's house as Gracie was given a tour. Ms. Mehl did a wonderful job in writing the book! I don't think anyone who reads it will be disappointed. I had a hard time putting it down!

Nancy Mehl's skill at creating hair-raising plots and unforgettable characters is undeniable. Her work has run the gamut of Christian mystery fiction from the thrillers Graven Images and Sinner's Song (and the even darker Malevolence) to the lighthearted humorous Ivy Towers romance/mysteries (beginning with In the Dead of Winter and concluding with There Goes Santa Claus).

Now, in Simple Secrets (the first in the Harmony series) she mines a new vein using a gentler voice. This time, the crime has taken place several years before in the predominately Mennonite town of Harmony, Kansas. Gracie Temple, a graphic artist, only wants to dispose of her deceased uncle's house and return her city life in Wichita, but she can't seem to help becoming involved in the lives of her uncle's neighbors. It seems to Gracie that the only thing she shares with these people is a strong Christian faith. To her, the great divide is the archaic simplicity of the Mennonite life versus the Twenty-first Century.

As Gracie struggles to prepare the old house for sale, she finds herself attracted to farmer Sam Goodrich and becomes entangled in the dark secrets of the townsfolk even as she learns more about what the Mennonite life is really about.

Overarching everything are desperate secrets that seem to affect everyone. What happened to the odious Jacob Glick? Did someone kill him--if so, why? Gracie is the catalyst that brings everything to the surface and helps free these gentle people from a darkness that has gripped them.

While definitely a mystery, Simple Secrets is more of a romance than a comedy. The love stories of several of the characters unfold tenderly and the plot comes to a satisfying conclusion while leaving room for welcome sequels.

Author Mehl has taken pains to accurately portray today's Mennonite community, even as she creates an intriguing tale of long-buried secrets that can hold hearts captive.