A Family Matter
Marsha BriscoeMainstream romance
Available from Whiskey Creek Press
ISBN: 1-59374-202-9
July 2004
| Salina Faye Graves uncovers a piece of mail that was among her mother's possessions; a letter written in one of her mother's more-lucid moments. It told of a man's culpability in both the suicide of her father, and the in the deaths of several miners. That man is Salina's husband, a man over twice her age, Lyman Graves. In the letter, her mother also stated that she mailed an incriminating journal with her father's facts and theories about Lyman to her, and unknowingly to Lyman himself. Now Salina has to confront her husband, not a man she loves but is indebted to, and not a nice man at all. Lyman refuses to tell her where the journal is, only giving her orders as to her "job" as his wife. Salina now knows that he is indeed capable of doing everything her mother has said; now she just needs to find the proof and clear her family's name.
When a tragic mining accident happens later that day and renders Lyman unconscious and in critical condition, Salina worries she will never find the journal. Salina must then call her stepson, Paul Titus "Mick" Graves, about his father's condition. This is a woman he had neither heard of nor knew about. He drops all his commitments and comes home. Mick is unaware that his new stepmother would be young, beautiful, and calls to him like no other woman ever had; and Salina doesn't expect her pulse to race when she first sees her stepson. And then the chaos begins... This was an interesting contemporary adaptation of the Greek myth about Phaedre. A complex and intriguing story about a loveless marriage built on a foundation of lies and manipulation, family values, and about love found where you least expect it. The story starts off strong and compelling but the ending seemed less than realistic and took a bit of the "bite" out of the story. A Family Matter is definitely worth reading!
Overall rating:
Reviewer: Sara Sawyer |
