Book 30-31
A Serial Killer's Daughter: My Story of Faith, Love, and Overcoming by Kerri Rawson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a hard one to review because it's someone's life. So let me say this, it's well written and is very uncomfortable to read as well it should be because it's a painful, ugly topic. I can't even imagine being in Kerri's shoes, finding out a father you loved is a serial killer.
This memoir covers her life with her father, BTK. She walks us through her childhood, the good and the bad. He was not a perfect father, moody and temperamental but he did seem dote on her and her brother for the most part. The book got a little long in the middle with the huge detailed trip they took through the Grand Canyon.
I think the biggest surprise for me was how nice people were to her after the truth came out. Not the media per se but people in town and I wasn't expecting that. It's also a religious book in its way. Her faith was a cornerstone of her healing.
It's a hard book to read but compelling too. It's worth checking out.
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The Breathtaker by Alice Blanchard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is one of my library finds. She's a new to me author and I'm going to have to look up more. I really enjoyed this mystery. Charlie Grover is a single father raising his teenaged daughter after losing his wife to cancer. He has a tragic past, having been badly burned as a child and having a complicated history with his abusive storm-chasing father.
In fact, storm chasing is at the heart of this mystery. Set in Promise Oklahoma, it begins after a nasty tornado tears through town and what looks like a trio of weather related deaths are actually a macabre murder (which they discover in the weirdest way).
As Grover picks through this, he has to face issues with his daughter, corruption in his town and finding a new potential love interest in, Willa, a wind engineer and storm chaser. Convinced that someone with major storm predicting skills is doing these murders, Grover has to hunt for the killer while hugging the edge of deadly storms.
The characters are likable and the end a bit surprising (and maybe a tad too Hollywood) but I enjoyed this. It seems to be a stand alone (since it was written years ago and doesn't have sequels) which is a shame because I would have liked to see Grover again.
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