Review by Booklist Review
The last thing Ruby McGavin thought she would be doing after her husband, Cole, died was meeting his family. He had claimed his relatives were all dead, and she didn't know him long enough--they were only married one year--to think otherwise. But it turns out that members of Cole's family, from a small ranch town in California, are very much alive, and they show up on Ruby's doorstep with the news that she has inherited some land from her husband. Ruby knows something about family turmoil, but she's hardly prepared for the turbulence surrounding the McGavin clan. As she attempts to sell the land back to the McGavins, she teams up with Lucas, one of Cole's brothers, to try to get to the core of the secret that is eating away at the family. With each step toward the answer, Ruby musters the courage to face her own familial demons. A touching family story set against the backdrop of a covered-up crime--give this one to Margaret Maron fans. --Mary Frances Wilkens Copyright 2006 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Fowler's lucky 13th novel, a departure from her Agatha Award-winning Benni Harper series (Delectable Mountain, etc.), offers a poignant tale of a family fractured by the secrets of the past. Ruby McGavin, grieving over the recent death of her husband, Cole, is shocked to discover that Cole lied to her about his family. They're not all dead, as he told her, but very much alive, and in his will, he has left her his share of the family ranch in California. Ruby heads to tiny Cardinal, Calif., with Cole's ashes, intent on selling her share of the ranch, but she quickly realizes that Cole had hidden many things from her. Cole's younger brother, Lucas, who has fled his life as a lawyer in San Francisco, has returned to Cardinal, where he scrapes out a life as a saddlemaker. Slowly Ruby and Lucas edge closer to the truth of a secret that haunts both their lives. Fowler, with her gift for drawing painfully real and credible characters, takes the reader along on an emotionally powerful ride. This could well be her breakout book. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Ruby McGavin discovers surprises on a California cattle ranch upon the death of her husband-plus a legacy of pain and denial. Fowler, author of the "Benni Harper" series, lives in Southern California. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A young widow confronts the family her late husband denied he had. During the six months they were married, Cole McGavin told his wife Ruby that his family had died in a traffic accident outside Bakersfield. But it's Cole whose truck is found at the bottom of a ravine off Ortega Highway, leaving Ruby to discover a will leaving her one-fourth of the Circle MG Ranch in Cardinal. Bearing an urn with Cole's ashes, she leaves Southern California for the high desert, not knowing what to expect from the kinfolk he's left very much alive. His aunt Birch, who loved Cole far better than his distant mother June did, treats Ruby kindly even before she knows who she is, offering her the best room at the Tokopah Lodge, which she owns with her half-Mexican, half-Paiute-Shoshone husband Bobby Hernandez. And brother Lucas, who took over Cole's saddlery when his law practice brought him too close to the dark side of humanity, also finds himself drawn to the lonely widow, even though his mother warns him that her claim on the ranch could bankrupt the Circle MG. But it's Cole's longtime friends Ely Grey and Lincoln Holyoke who tell Ruby about Cole's past, revealing the dark secret of the man she loved but barely knew. The creator of Benni Harper (Delectable Mountains, 2005, etc.) has produced a lovely crossover novel, a family tale with flair and heart. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
