Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Shadows Of Lancaster County - Mindy Starns Clark

Shadows Of Lancaster County - Mindy Starns Clark
Centre Point Large Print
Amish Fiction
ISBN : 978-1-60285-398-0
Hardback Largeprint : 507 pages

BOOK SNYOPSIS:

Anna thought she left the tragedies of the past behind when she moved from Pennsylvania to California, but when her brother vanishes from the genetics lab where he works, Anna has no choice but to head back home. Using skills well-honed in Silicon Valley, she follows the high-tech trail her brother left behind, a trail that leads from the simple world of Amish farming to the cutting edge of DNA research and gene mapping.

Anna knows she must depend on her instincts, her faith in God, and the help of the Amish community to find her brother. She also must finally face her own shadows - and pray that she's stronger than the grief that threatens to overwhelm them all.

This is the first book I have read by Mindy Starns Clark and it won't be the last. This was a suspenseful stand alone mystery featuring the Amish. I always enjoy reading about the Amish and was an interesting change to read one with a mystery theme.

The story opens with Bobby being chased in the dark on his motorbike which he had borrowed by an unknown car which seems to want him dead for some reason. He takes a calculated risk which sees the motorbike he is riding leave the road and catapults him over a concrete fence as thoughts run through his head wondering if this is going to be his last moments alive on earth.

Bobby has a wife Lydia and son Isaac. Lydia rings Bobby's sister Anna in a panic concerned as to what to do as Bobby has gone missing and contacted her to insist that she move to stay with her Amish family where she will be able to be kept safe and to contact Anna as she will know what to do and work out how to find Bobby.

Anna had adopted a new identity and created a life for herself as a skip-jumper after an incident in her youth which left her with a criminal record. She is rather reluctant to have to return home to face all the memories from the past and know that the media will have a field day wanting to drag up her past and mix it in with the present day disappearance of her brother Bobby.

After the phone call from Lydia their is an intruder in the house of Lydia's friend Kiki where she has been staying and he injuries Kiki and then attempts to attack Anna as he demands to know where the Beauharnais Rubies are. Anna is totally unaware of anything about the Beauharnias Rubies and so her journey begins.

Anna begins searching for her brother and intertwined in the story is how the Beauharnais Rubies came to be and what they are to mean to Anna and her family. Bobby's work involves DNA and his friends Doug and Reed were also involved working with the same DNA company. Bobby has revealed some illegal gene mapping that has occurred and due to snooping to find out more is how his good friend Doug ended up dead and how he nearly ended up the same way himself. The book reveals some rather interesting twists and turns involving Bobby and Lydia's son Isaac, their old Amish neighbours and a genetic gene that has killed several Amish children.

This is a well written story where Mindy gives us an insight into the Amish and their forgiving Christian nature, romance between Anna and her friend Reed from the Dreiheit Five as they struggle with the romance between them which began in their youth, the mystery of the Beauharnais Rubies and DNA research where Bobby, Doug and Reed worked.

To learn more about Mindy Starns Clark you can check out here blog here.....


and a video clip on You Tube promoting her book here....








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