Blog Tour/Review: Let Me Die In His Footsteps by Lori Roy

In the spellbinding and suspenseful Let Me Die in His Footsteps,Edgar Award–winner Lori Roy wrests from a Southern town the secrets of two families touched by an evil that has passed between generations.

On a dark Kentucky night in 1952 exactly halfway between her fifteenth and sixteenth birthdays, Annie Holleran crosses into forbidden territory. Everyone knows Hollerans don’t go near Baines, not since Joseph Carl was buried two decades before, but, armed with a silver-handled flashlight, Annie runs through her family’s lavender fields toward the well on the Baines’ place. At the stroke of midnight, she gazes into the water in search of her future. Not finding what she had hoped for, she turns from the well and when the body she sees there in the moonlight is discovered come morning, Annie will have much to explain and a past to account for.

It was 1936, and there were seven Baine boys. That year, Annie’s aunt, Juna Crowley, with her black eyes and her long blond hair, came of age. Before Juna, Joseph Carl had been the best of all the Baine brothers. But then he looked into Juna’s eyes and they made him do things that cost innocent people their lives. Sheriff Irlene Fulkerson saw justice served—or did she?

As the lavender harvest approaches and she comes of age as Aunt Juna did in her own time, Annie’s dread mounts. Juna will come home now, to finish what she started. If Annie is to save herself, her family, and this small Kentucky town, she must prepare for Juna’s return, and the revelation of what really happened all those years ago.

Review:

I received a digital copy via TLC BOOK TOURS in exchange of honest review.

I love historical fiction. I honestly love reading different authors perceptions about how they view the past and the instances of that constitute past!

This is the first Lori Roy novel that I have read and I have to say I am impressed.

The story is set in a small town of Kentucky – a town that hides animosities between two families, a girl who has “the sight” and a secret that isn’t a secret at all.

I will not go beyond this, because let’s face it – you’ll hate me for the spoilers 😛

This story has an interesting concept – told in dual POV of both the protagonist Anne and her Aunt Juna , you get to read about both the 1950’s and the 1930’s. Now I am from India, what I have learnt about America has been from books or movies. But what I have learnt from This book is quote ingenious to say the least!

The story though does go a little slow – but that is to be expected of a historical book but I still would have preferred a faster read. Maybe it was my cranky mood (or reading slump, as you muggles would refer to it as!) but it did honestly affect my enjoyment of the book – hence the littel low rating!

The writing though is brilliant! Really! Lori’s brilliant at explaining the characters, the circumstance but perhaps the most brilliant thing she did is the way she ended the book – I never saw that coming and that by far was the best thing about the ever!

I will definitely read more of Lori’s book – just not when I am in a cranky mood 😀

Rating:

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ .5

Recommendation:

If you like a good historical fiction, and love a good twist to the story then this book is definitely for you!

About the Author

Lori Roy was born and raised in Manhattan, Kansas where she graduated from Kansas State University.  Her debut novel, BENT ROAD, published in 2011, was awarded the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best First Novel by an American Author, named a 2011 New York Times Notable Crime Book and named a 2012 notable book by the state of Kansas. BENT ROAD has been optioned for film. Her second novel, UNTIL SHE COMES HOME, was named a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and was nominated for an Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best Novel.  Her upcoming novel, LET ME DIE IN HIS FOOTSTEPS, will be published June 2nd. Lori also serves as treasure for the Sisters in Crime organization and is a liaison to the Author Coalition. She currently lives with her family in west central Florida. 

Publisher’s Weekly has included LET ME DIE IN HIS FOOTSTEPS in their 2015 Spring/Summer Edition of Book Buzz. It is one of 39 Fiction, Debut and  Non-fiction titles featured. Readers may download the free publication via THIS LINK and are able to read an excerpt from each of the included titles.