Rating: 
Summary: Puts you at the scene of the crime
Review: The descriptions are so vivid that you can almost smell the starch in the doilies,taste the crunchy watermelon and feel the blast of hot air through the window.
Not only does Ms. Hart place us amidst the happenings, seen through the eyes of Gretchen, she manages to make the story twist and turn so that at the end, we are truly surprised at the outcome.
The two young girls, Gretchen and Barbie, follow very divergent lives, and their story is told through fragments of a letter sent to Gretchen and her thoughts as she looks back to that time long ago.
This book should satsify any mystery fan and those who love stories from the 40's. We get a feel for the times with women doing war work, rationing and young boys from the town that are killed.
And one great thing about this book is that a young girl is given her break into journalism by a crusty old editor. A concept that in those times was remarkable indeed.
Rating:
Summary: Fine characterization keeps the plot quite lively
Review: The scene: small-town Oklahoma. The character: a world-renowed journalist who goes back to her roots. The problem: a small town murder which prompts speculation and the return of Gretchen to her roots to find out just what happened to a girl who had everything. Fine characterization keeps the plot of Letter From Home quite lively from beginning to end.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best recent mysteries I have read
Review: This is one of the most satisfying contemporary mysteries I have read in the past 15 or so years. Set in World War II, the protagonist's best friend's mother is murdered and all clues seem to point to her soldier-on-leave husband. Tha atmosphere is well handled and the plot - suffice it to say that this veteran mystery reader was fooled almost all the way by one of the 2 main tricks and all the way by the second. Hart's series debut novels ("Death on Demand" and "Dead Man's Island") were outstanding; this non-series book surpasses both.
Rating:
Summary: One of Carolyn's best
Review: This one of the best books Ms Hart has ever written and she is a top notch author. She has got your attention on page one and you will not want to put it down until you are through. It is a wonderful story and it has an ending that will have you shaking your head and thinking I never thought. It takes place in the 40's and is very interesting reading about what life was like back then. So buy this wonderful book. you will enjoy it. 6 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Letter From Home Hits Home
Review: What a rich novel, a powerful mystery, a joy to read.
This novel is outside Hart's well-known longterm mystery series. It involves a 13-year-old in her first journalism job on a daily newspaper in a small northeast Oklahoma town in 1944. It does, however, have a strong mystery to spin, integral to the coming-of-age core plot.
I grew up in a small-town in the same part of Oklahoma during World War II myself. In fact, my family owned the daily newspaper. I don't know whether I was charmed by the book more because it captures or recreates so well a time and place that I share -- or by its intrinsic value, a fine story, beautifully told. I suspect both. Anyway, I loved it. So will you and so should some people on your holiday gift list.
Rating:
Summary: Letter From Home Hits Home
Review: What a rich novel, a powerful mystery, a joy to read.
This novel is outside Hart's well-known longterm mystery series. It involves a 13-year-old in her first journalism job on a daily newspaper in a small northeast Oklahoma town in 1944. It does, however, have a strong mystery to spin, integral to the coming-of-age core plot.
I grew up in a small-town in the same part of Oklahoma during World War II myself. In fact, my family owned the daily newspaper. I don't know whether I was charmed by the book more because it captures or recreates so well a time and place that I share -- or by its intrinsic value, a fine story, beautifully told. I suspect both. Anyway, I loved it. So will you and so should some people on your holiday gift list.
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