Thursday, September 19, 2013

Guest Post from Joanne Wiklund - On Tidewater Murder

At the risk of singing my own praises, I wanted to post this review of Tidewater Murder from a loyal follower of my FundsforWriters work. She tells it like she sees it, in her own words, without trying to sound academic, profound or something other than genuine.
 
I'm an advocate for writing reviews, and when I read a book, especially from someone emerging or mid-list, I post a review. When I received this review, I thought it would be a great moment to emphasize book reviews. 
 
They are short and so simple to do, and telling others why a book touched you is remarkably rewarding: for the reviewer, the author and potential readers, maybe publishers and agents. Next time you love a book, let people know. Everyone benefits.   ~HOPE
 
By Joanne Wiklund
 
Five senses: hearing, taste, vision, touch and smell make up our chances to appreciate, endure and experience our world around us. When we write, however, sometimes we forget to include them all. C. Hope Clark, in her new novel from the low country, Tidewater Murder, hits them all and keeps the reader awake and interested from her very first sentence.
 
Hope's characters are real, but she lets us as readers decide what they look like, from meager little tidbits and nuances as she introduces them. She lets us form our own opinions of each one who comes into the scenes. Her continuing character, Carolina Slade and her best friend Savvy draw us into the strings which tie their friendship together. In this novel, however, those friendship strings are stretched to the utmost. This story is a sit yourself down, hang on read, because each of those senses I spoke of are about to be assaulted.
 
Still, when the story's done, as a reader I was conscious of the whole thing neatly tied up, and I found it as good a read as the first of her novels, Lowcountry Bribe.
 
Having met Hope when she introduced her book at the library in Bettendorf, IA, her sense of humor gives readers a chance to catch their breath any number of times throughout the books also. With more books coming, C. Hope Clark will be as noticed in the novel world as she is in the writers helping writers world.
 
 

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