Deeper Than the Dead by Tami Hoag

"A first-rate thriller with an ending that will knock your socks off."

                                             -Booklist

This novel was a real page turner, in fact I could barely put it down. I've read several mysteries by Tami Hoag but not in a few years. I will definitely look for more.

The story begins with 4 kids literally stumbling over a dead body in a park. They are fifth grade students of main character, Anne Navarre, who immediately becomes involved with trying to help her students through the trauma and eventually getting involved in the murder case. I was grabbed immediately by the characters since I taught fifth grade for over 20 years and my name is Anne! Being a big fan of crime shows I was further intriqued by the search for the serial killer. The plot reminded me so much of "Criminal Minds" and with the character Vince Leone, of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit as a profiler, even more so. The story is set in 1985 before the supertechnology that aids in crime solving today. Agent Leone is a somewhat new breed since profiling was in its earliest days. The author tells us this was at a time when the BSU had offices at the FBI Academy in Quantico, VA, that were 60 feet belowground---that is 10 times "deeper than the dead."

Add a little romance into all the suspense and you get a really great read! I'd give it a 5.  Enjoy the ride!

Songs of the Humpback Whale by Jodi Picoult

"Let me tell you a little something about love.  It's different every time....I believe that you can fall in love many times with many different people. However I don't think that you can fall in love the same way twice. One type of relationship may be steady. Another may be fire and brimstone. Who is to say if one these is better than the other? The deciding factor is how it all fits together....The bottom line is: when your heart sets its sight on someone, it doesn't consult with your mind."
                                                     -Joley, page 336

I have read a number of Jodi Picoult's books and have enjoyed several but not this one. In fact it took me a while to finish it and at first I wasn't sure I wanted to. A friend recommended the book and loaned me a copy which was probably one reason I did get to the end. That and I finally got to a point where I wanted to know how it turned out. This was not a "page turner" as many of her novels have been for me.

First I found her style and the format of the story quite confusing. I didn't mind the alternating voices of the characters nearly as much as that some of the storytelling was backwards! This is how lost I was: I didn't even realize that the only character relating events backward chronologically was Rebecca, until I learned it in the first discussion question at the end of the novel!  I actually enjoyed the perspectives of the different characters as the plot continued.

Though Oliver, husband of Jane and father of Rebecca, the two main characters, was a scientist and expert on humpback whales, I never really understood how the title fit the plot. Again, in reading over the discussion questions it seems that whale songs may have been a metaphor for communication or lack of it. Perhaps I didn't read this novel deeply enough!

I try not to include "spoilers" in my reviews but I personally didn't care much for the ending. I would rate this one a 3.

The Devil in Pew Number Seven by Rebecca Nichols Alonzo

"God is still good even when life is hard." (page 255)

"Forgiveness is the language of heaven."

This book was really not what I expected.  When I asked our book club members to suggest titles for a January book, The Devil in Pew Number Seven was mentioned.  I briefly perused the description online and somehow got the wrong impression.  I understood that the author was the daughter of a pastor who had faced a very challenging congregant, a man who always sat in the seventh pew and generally made life difficult for him.  What I absolutely didn't get was how difficult, dangerous actually, this real-life villain was to the devout and dedicated Christian couple and family, including the author as a young child.  I predicted the plot would involve a character change of the culprit but I was pretty far off the mark!
We all know truth can be stranger than fiction and in this book, truth is very intense!  I found it a "page turner" and read it fairly quickly. This probably had something to do with frequent foreshadowing, a technique I thought was a bit overused. The photos included in the book seemed to give me an even closer connection to the characters.  I didn't care for the final chapter where the author gets a little "preachy." I thought the message of redemption and forgiveness came through rather powerfully in the story itself.  

I am not the biggest fan of nonfiction but this book was a good one---both heartbreaking and inspiring. I'd rate it a 4.
***
Our Page Turners group met on the 31st and had a rousing discussion of this book, even though the group rating turned out a 2.9. Many in our group of 16 were incredulous that Pastor Nichols did not give up and get his family out of that place! Some were angry at the parents for allowing their children to remain in such danger along with being furious at Mr. Watts. We also couldn't understand why law enforcement, or at the very least members of the congregation, did not DO SOMETHING much sooner! We felt that the writing was not that good. In fact, I had the feeling if we had given our rating based only on the writing, it would have been lower. We were in agreement that it was a worthwhile read if only to inspire us to greater heights of forgiveness.