She Treads Softly: Blind Faith

Tuesday, October 4, 2022

Blind Faith

Blind Faith by Alicia Beckman
10/11/22; 336 pages
Crooked Lane Books

Blind Faith by Alicia Beckman is a highly recommended mystery.

There are several different mysteries that need to be resolved. Lindsay Keller is a lawyer who currently handles real estate deals and historic preservation projects in Billings, Montana. When she is given a wallet found on a property, she realizes immediately it belongs to Father Michael Leary, who disappeared years ago and is presumed dead.

Detective Brian Donovan has moved to Billings from Boston and taking on a notorious cold case intrigues him. The case is propelled to the forefront with the discovery of the wallet and Donovan is carefully examining all the case notes from years ago.

In Portland, Ore., Carrie Matheson, knew Father Mike. When she was young, her Baba and little sister, Ginger, moved to Billings following Father Mike. She was in her senior year of high school when something happened that had them moving yet again. This time to Portland, Oregon.

Lindsay and Donovan are both examining and digging deeper into Father Mike's murder. Carrie, on the other hand, is researching her family tree to try and help her grandson get into a drug trial. He has cystic fibrosis and in order to be accepted into the drug trial, he needs a complete genealogy. Her investigation leads to Father Mike and Lindsay and Donovan. There is also the question of how does this all connect to an event in the 70's when a man forces another car off a cliff.

The characters are fully realized as unique individuals. You will care about what happens, but there are many characters, which requires, again, that you pay close attention to all of them and remember the facts surrounding them.

This is a well-written intelligent and complex mystery that spans decades and moves forward at a steady, even pace. Chapters are headed by the year and this is very important because the narrative jumps back and forth between years as well as the points-of-view of various characters. Clues to what is happening in the present are found in these chapters which requires readers to pay close attention to when and where the chapter is set. The switching back and forth can also be a bit disconcerting. This is an excellent mystery but the jumping timelines made it a much slower trip to the satisfying conclusion.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Crooked Lane Books via NetGalley.

1 comment:

Leslie Budewitz said...: So glad you enjoyed the trip to Montana with me!

Alicia Beckman, aka Leslie Budewitz; October 5, 2022 at 4:05 PM

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.