Cathy Loves This Debut Novel

 

Mary Byrd Thornton could understand how a reporter couldn’t resist the story: a nine-year-old boy sexually molested and killed on Mother's Day, 1966. A suspect to whom nothing would stick. A neighborhood riddled with secrets. No one, especially the bungling or complicit authorities, had been able to solve the crime. Now, thirty years later, the reporter’s call will reel a reluctant Mary Byrd from Mississippi back to Virginia where she must confront her family—and, once again, the murder’s irremovable stain of tragedy.

Lisa Howorth’s remarkable Flying Shoes is a work of fiction, but the murder is based on the still-unsolved case of her stepbrother, a front page story in the Washington Post. And yet this is not a crime novel; it is an honest and luminous story of a particular time and place in the South, where even calamitous weather can be a character, everyone has a story, and all are inextricably entwined.

 

With a flamboyant cast, splendid dark humor, a potent sense of history, and a shocking true story at its heart, Flying Shoes is a rich and candid novel from a fresh new southern voice about family and memory and one woman’s flight from a wounded past.

 

Cathy says:

"Lisa Howarth's debut novel Flying Shoes is a Southern feast for the mind.   As Howarth's mystery of the brutal death of a nine-year-old boys unfolds the reader meets unforgettable characters, most notably Mary Byrd Thornton a feisty, flawed and often foul-mouthed wife, mother and step-sister of the murdered child who is very reluctantly revisiting the event after 30 years.

 

Flying Shoes artfully steers the reader through some of the idiosyncracies of life in a southern town and deals with social  and racial issues with the honest and humor that only an insider can offer."  

"The Untold is destined to be THE summer read of 2014, and well beyond." ~Cathy

 With shades of Water for Elephants and True Grit, a stunning debut novel set in the Australian outback about a female horse thief, her bid for freedom, and the two men trying to capture her.

It is 1921. In a mountain-locked valley, Jessie is on the run.

Born wild and brave, by twenty-six she has already lived life as a circus rider, horse and cattle rustler, and convict. But on this fateful night she is just a woman wanting to survive though there is barely any life left in her.

Two men crash through the bushland, desperate to claim the reward on her head: one her lover, the other the law.

But as it has always been for Jessie, it is death, not a man, who is her closest pursuer and companion. And while all odds are stacked against her, there is one who will never give up on her—her own child, who awaits her.

Read an interview with the author HERE. (The book they are showing you is the Australian version, where the book debuted under another title.)

Cathy says:

"The Untold is a wild, amazing ride that gives readers one of the most powerful and compelling female protagonist ever written. Jessie is a convicted horse rustler, fleeing the scene of a murder, pursued by, among others, her half aboriginal lover, through the mountain wilderness of Australia in 1921. Based on a real character, her story is told though a haunting voice that brilliantly conveys the harsh and brutal nature of the time and place.

The Untold is destined to be THE summer read of 2014, and well beyond. Courtney Collins is bold with her narrative voice and bolder still with the pace, while bringing to life a tale that rivals any myth of the American West, and bravo that a woman is the stuff that myths are made of."

" It is amazing what people will do when they are in pain in order to 'do the right thing.'" ~ Lisa C.

Alone in an empty house, Lucy tries to imagine the lives of her two young children. They have been gone for seven years, and she is tormented by the role she played in that heartbreaking loss. You can hardly see a glimpse of the sexy, edgy woman she used to be. Back then, she was a magnet for men like Matt, who loved her beyond reason, and Griffin, who wouldn't let go but always left her wanting more. Now the lies they told and the choices they made have come to haunt all three of them.

With shattering turns, Lies You Wanted to Hear explores the way good people talk themselves into doing terrible, unthinkable things. What happens when we come to believe our own lies? And what price must we pay for our mistakes?

A searing story that will leave you wondering what choices you would make, Lies You Wanted to Hear is a stunning debut.

Lisa C. says:
"I finished Lies You Wanted to Hear in two days. Once you start, it really is hard to put down. The story the marriage between Lucy and Matt twists and turns down a never-ending road of pain. The chapters alternate between characters and while I was reading it I thought, boy this book will be a great book club book because there is so much to discuss. There is no good guy in this but you can certainly see how it all happens. Reading their thoughts was enlightening and stopped me from judging them from day one. It is amazing what people will do when they are in pain in order to 'do the right thing.'"

Lisa's A Fan of This Debut Novel

The debut of a stunning new voice in fiction— a novel both heartbreaking and transcendent

After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season and shore leaves are granted every other year at best, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.

Tom, whose records as a lighthouse keeper are meticulous and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel has taken the tiny baby to her breast. Against Tom’s judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them.

M. L. Stedman’s mesmerizing, beautifully written novel seduces us into accommodating Isabel’s decision to keep this “gift from God.” And we are swept into a story about extraordinarily compelling characters seeking to find their North Star in a world where there is no right answer, where justice for one person is another’s tragic loss.

The Light Between Oceans is exquisite and unforgettable, a deeply moving novel.

This is the UK trailer for the book--only the covers are different.

Lisa says:
"In this debut novel, author M.L. Stedman, who was born in Western Australia but now lives in London, asks her readers to immerse themselves in a story about heart-wrenching love, loyalty and morality. Tom, a lighthouse keeper just after WWI is seeking solace to quiet the nightmares of the Somme. He meets Isabel, who is playful and bright and they fall in love, marry and move to the lonely island to man the lighthouse off of the coast of Australia. One day a dingy washes ashore with a dead man and a crying baby girl in it. Isabel, who has had three miscarriages desperately wants to keep the baby. Tom wants to do the right thing and report it. The decision they make not only throws their world into turmoil, it changes the lives of many. What is right and wrong? How about something that is done in the name of right but really ends up being self-serving? What about the consequences? This is a story that will stick with you. A lighthouse, lonely, solitary, yet important and life-saving for some, is the perfect setting for this book."