Judith’s review of Standing in the Shadows by Ken Casper.
Marcie Browder might have despised her miserable father, but she didn’t kill him. Now, is she falling in love with the man who did? She married a guy just like her dear old dad. Drunk. Abusive. Unfaithful. So she divorced him and returned home to her family’s ranch in West Texas to heal. Her hopes for peace vanish when she has a confrontation with her father—and later, he’s found dead. Murdered. The new ranch foreman, Tucker McGee, a man who unsettles her in ways she doesn’t want to admit, is the prime suspect.
Marcie soon learns the people she trusted most—family and friends—are hiding secrets that will change her life, forever. And they know something they’re not telling her about Tucker McGee. He sits a horse well—very well—but he’s no cowboy. Marcie’s reluctant to accept his help, but he’s hard to resist . . . in more ways than one. Is Tucker her only ally, or is he just another dangerous man with the power to hurt her?
I guess the most difficult part of reading a story like this is to know that even though this is a fictional family, there are scads of families just like it–filled with hurt, abuse, secrets, anger, and jealousy. Ken Casper has created a novel that is filled with all those things yet there is, at the very core, the desire to be the best, to find the best, to be the best that is humanly possible. Everyone has probably experienced the need to return to one’s roots, to return to a place where one is supposed to be cherished and valued, taken in as an important part of the whole. Yet when Marcie returns home she finds more of the same and is thrown into the morass of swirling emotions, deep family secrets, all brought to a head by the actions and eventual murder of her dad, an unkind and ego-driven man who has no love, no kindness, no caring for anyone in his family.
This will not be a simplistic reading experience as each of these characters appears to be one thing on the surface, a particular kind of person whose place in the overall scheme of things is more often than not far different than first assumed. Add in the presence of a new foreman who has some secrets of his own, an old drinking buddy of his dad’s who muddies the waters and keeps everyone off balance with his participation in the affairs of Marcie’s dad, a fellow rancher whose cattle are being rustled along with some from Marcie’s family ranch and whose emotional connection to her mother has her asking questions, and a brother who has another whole life and whose jealousy of his sister drives him to make some unwise choices. It’s a complicated cast of characters but one where every person on every page is important to the progress of the story.
Marcie and Tucker’s attraction to one another isn’t the most obvious aspect of the story, but it is one that is important as it pinpoints Marcie’s deep fear of being hurt again while hoping that for once there is a man who values her enough to treat her well. Their story is woven throughout the warp and woof of the novel’s many textures and it gives that marvelous flavor that only a well-written romance can give to any other kind of novel. Right along with Marcie the reader will discover some important truths that will change the way these characters interact, and all in all it is a compelling novel with its romance, its relational tensions, and the mysteries of who is rustling the cattle as well as how the murder of Marcie’s dad may be connected.
This was a delightful read–delightful in the sense that reading a novel that snags my interest and which holds it fast for the duration is a delight. It was a delight because of being beautifully written and balanced in all its story ingredients. This is the second Ken Casper novel I have read and I was not disappointed in this one at all. Best of all, the author lends that edge of life experience to the writing that make this story so believable. It’s a terrific book.
I give it a rating of 4.25 out of 5
You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place.
This book is available from Bell Bridge Books. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
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