Stone Fish (Avalon Mystery) [Hardcover]

Olivia Ferrell (Author)

Book Description

Series: Avalon Mystery | Publication Date: October 30, 2005

Maggie Rome never expected to hear from her ex-husband, Gary Brady, and she certainly never dreamed that his late-night call would get her mixed up in a murder investigation involving an Arkansas cult.

Gary's younger sister Susan has been found dead, and unconvinced that she would commit suicide, Gary asks Maggie for her help in uncovering the truth. Though Maggie is reluctant to get involved, she feels guilty for not paying more attention to Susan after the divorce, and as a photojournalist for a New York based news magazine, Maggie hopes to use her contacts to dig up the truth.

Maggie convinces her editor to let her fly to Arkansas to investigate Susan's death as one of several others on college campuses. While working with the local sheriff, however, Maggie uncovers an insidious cult known as The Glorious Church. The more she learns about the bizarre cult, the more Maggie fears what may have happened to Susan Brady. Though threatened by cult members, Maggie is determined to get the real story behind Susan's death and the cult that has been hiding under the covers of a small Arkansas town.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Ferrell's debut is not without flaws, but the quaint Arkansas setting and exciting New York reporter protagonist provide considerable compensation. When Maggie Rome, a New York reporter, receives a call from her ex-husband, Gary, her first instinct is to hang up--until he tells her that his younger sister, Susan, has committed suicide in Arkansas. Neither Gary nor Maggie believes the young girl would kill herself, so Maggie travels to tiny Armen, Arkansas, to investigate. After it becomes clear that the Glorious Church, a local religious cult, has played a role in Susan's death, Maggie attempts to infiltrate the highly secretive organization. Unfortunately, Ferrell almost blows it with her copious, clunky dialogue. Endless boring fights between Gary and Maggie serve no purpose except to convince readers that removing half the dialogue would make the novel twice as good. Still, Ferrell has created a suspenseful story and a spunky, compelling heroine. Let's hope to see Maggie again with less talk and more action. Jenny McLarin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"The suspense in Ferrell's novel is first-rate. With its captivating characters and smoothly executed plot this mystery is one not to be missed." -- From Romantic Times, December 2005

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 246 pages
• Publisher: Avalon; 1 edition (October 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803497385
• ISBN-13: 978-0803497382
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,005,856 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Can't suspend my disbelief that far, January 15, 2006

By 

kujrsygrl - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stone Fish (Avalon Mystery) (Hardcover)

I could only make it through the first dozen pages or so of this book and had to toss it.

Are we really expected to believe that someone is so upset about his sister's supposed suicide that he would enlist the help of his ex-wife to get to the bottom of the situation, and then not bother going to see his parents after her death - even though he's only minutes away from where they live??

She's dead, apparently there's been no service or anything where he'd have run into his parents (he lives on the west coast, they in the south, and his ex-wife in the northeast), and now he's gone to the trouble of flying to the city where his ex-wife lives, and then flying to the town where his sister died, which is near his parents' house, and still hasn't even bothered to speak to them? And the ex-wife doesn't even think this is odd or unusual, either.

Bleh. I am not going to bother to plow through the rest of the book at this point.

Not worth the trouble. Only leaving one star because the system won't allow me to leave zero stars.