Judith’s review of Next of Kin by Sharon Sala
Beth Venable has seen too much. Witness to a major mob hit, she’s placed in protective custody until the trial. But after her third safe house is riddled with bullets, she goes off-grid to save herself. What the FBI can’t do, her kinfolk will.
The beautiful but forbidding Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky welcome Beth back, dirt roads and rustic shacks a world apart from L.A. But her homecoming—even her blissful reunion with strong, silent Ryal Walker—is made bittersweet by the fight she’s brought to the clan’s doorstep. Hidden in a remote cabin with the man she’s always wanted, Beth begins to dream of a new life: her old one. But after so long, with such dangers stalking her…impossible.
But love can distill life down to its essence: an elixir of pure hope, nerve—and the will to survive.
Bunking in with her best friend because of a gas leak at her apartment, she spent part of the night looking at the stars through her friend’s telescope. What she saw was far from heavenly: she witnessed a brutal murder, saw the face of the murderer clearly, and from that moment on, her life wasn’t worth a plug nickel. She couldn’t find safety in the “jungles and forests” of Los Angeles. Neither the LAPD or the FBI could keep her safe. So she retreated to her home territory of Rebel Ridge, Kentucky through the good graces of her uncle, a long-distance trucker who enlisted the help of his driving buddies.
This novel is the kind that keeps the reader on the edge of the chair from word one. The story is told from a “third person” perspective, mostly seeing the situation through Beth’s eyes, but from time to time the reader is made privy to the thoughts of mobster Ike Pappas and his son Adam, a young man who gradually figures out that his dad has murdered his mother. Of all the characters, even though he is a secondary one, Adam is the saddest and perhaps the one who loses the most.
My mother’s family is from Western Kentucy with roots in Tennessee and the Carolinas. There is no doubt in my mind that while the mobster successfully penetrated the safety efforts of law enforcement at both local and federal levels, he was coming up against a circle of protection made up of Beth’s family and friends that were unlike any he had ever encountered. There’s a good reason moonshiners and illegal drug operations successfully evade law enforcement when they are buried in the hills of Appalachia. Those are the same kinds of surroundings that formed the haven for Beth. But this is also a love story–one that brings lovers together after a ten year estrangement and one that was caused by others rather than their own doing. So there is that sense that in the midst of trouble and the fears of dying comes the possibility of a second chance at living. There is also the underlying truth that while Beth has spent the past ten years living in the fast-paced Southern California culture, a large part of her is still “hankering” for home in those Kentucky hills and in the embrace of her kin.
This book is beautifully written and the story never lags. The characters are crafted to be sharp and edgy, unique and colorful, and the reader really doesn’t know who are the good guys or the bad guys other than those made obvious in the text. I got the feeling throughout that no matter how often Beth seemed able to evade those seeking her death, I was waiting for the other shoe to drop, wondering if this cagey and creative lady would ever be able to move on with her life. Only the best written books manage to keep up that kind of tension for the full length of the book.
I always enjoy a romance that is spiced up with suspense or the tension of the kind found here. It makes for a read that will not ever disappoint. No slow start, no dead spots, no lagging narrative, and lots of twists and turns. What could be better?
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 Mira. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
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