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Crimes Of Redemption (2012)

by Linda McDonald(Favorite Author)

3.98 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

193705425X (ISBN13: 9781937054250)

languge

English

genre

Horror

publisher

Roadrunner Press

review 1: Crimes of Redemption is a stirring story of three scarred and lonely people whose life experiences and poor choices have made them outsiders, afraid and unwilling to trust others.The book begins with the first, but not the worst, heinous crime that forms the crux of this compelling tale. Gayla Early has just killed the man who has imprisoned and abused her for two years with a bloody 2x4 she has pulled loose from a boarded up window in Albert Raeder's garage basement at his lake cabin near Luckau, Oklahoma.Gayla is weak physically, broken spiritually and emotionally, but she recognizes that she must get out. She breaks the glass in the small basement window and crawls out...no shoes, no coat, and bleeding from the glass. After two days wandering, dressing her wounded cut... mores and bloody feet along the way by tearing up the garments she is wearing, she stumbles onto Willie Morris' property.Willie is a gruff older woman who is emotionally scarred from alcohol abuse at an earlier stage of her life, and the heart-breaking early death of her only child. When she first sees Gayla, her first thought is that she is looking at a wounded animal, but soon enough has brought her in and before she knows it, her protective sensibilities reawaken and she is caring for Gayla's wounds and waiting patiently for Gayla to learn to trust her enough to tell her how she got her wounds.As Gayla gets stronger she begins to take long walks outdoors, savoring the smells and beauty that she has lived so long without. In the mean time, the local sheriff, Tommy Maynard is patrolling the Oklahoma backwoods, savoring the opportunity to be alone in his cruiser so he can enjoy a quick high on the pot he has come to depend on since he returned from Viet Nam. As he enjoys that first magical puff, a deer from out of nowhere jumps into his path. He swerves to miss her, but hits her fawn following just behind her. Out of control, he realizes that the car is heading down the embankment and when he comes to he is hanging upside down, held in place by his seat belt. Almost at once, Gayla is there, having heard the accident occur. Her previous training as a hospital tech kicks in and she is able to help the wounded man out of the car before it catches fire.Author Linda McDonald does a masterful job of unfolding the back stories of these three protagonists, creating believably flawed characters. It doesn't take long for the body of Gayla's captor to be discovered. Turns out that he is a wealthy real estate mogul and city father in the nearby larger city of Elk City with lots of monied and influential friends. It doesn't take long for Gayla to be zeroed in on as the likely suspect and the Elk City crowd is predisposed to paint her as a gold digger or worse, not as a horribly wronged victim. But Willie Morris and Tommy Maynard find inner strength and empathy that has been long suppressed, becoming a strong support team that just may be able to get Gayla through the trauma of a public trial that threatens to be more about smearing her than uncovering the ugly truth about the dark side of Albert Raeder.This is a page turner with a strong and unexpected ending. Really an enjoyable read, and I once again have the folks at NetGalley to thank for the opportunity to read it.
review 2: This book was a Goodreads win and it's my understanding it was the author's first book. Thank you for a such a great story.This book held my interest from the first page to the last. I had a mental picture of the characters and was especially fond of Sheriff Maynard and Willie. Willie lived alone with her dog and stayed pretty much away from others and Sheriff Maynard took the job as a small time cop. He was in the service before we met him in the story and he was captured and tortured unmercifully during that duty. This small-town job was what he felt he needed. Not much happening so he could freely smoke his pot and get on with his day. Then a murder. These two interesting characters have a total change of personality. Their compassion and understanding was wonderful. I loved the story! less

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