Sometimes there are things left unsaid that should have been expressed. We tend to live a life of secrets. When we keep secrets they tend to come back and influence our present actions making us an enigma to those around us.
On the other hand some things are best not revealed.
This story concerns image. Our main character, Lissa Randall, is afraid to move on with her life after an accident that took the life of her mother. She feels things are being taken away from her. She becomes destructive. “Sometimes they only whispered faintly, a vague accusation. At other times they shouted, furious, demanding.”
She wants to keep her horse whom she hardly has time to tend for. “Lissa remembered holding on to Caleb and saying over and over, “It’s going to be all right. We are going to survive. I swear it. This will not destroy us, Caleb. We are going to survive.” Her arms were tight around his neck; she felt his warm breath and held him tight.
“Had she said these things? Did she still believe them? Now she was the one longing for arms to close tightly around her and swear to her, swear to her on everything under the sun that things were going to change. She was going to make it, and these terrible voices would stop.”
Her life has become a life of routine. She can’t move forward or make plans. She is ready to go on to college but needs the confidence to move on. This is seen in her fear of driving. Having failed her driving test because she is nervous, she has a tester turns to her and say: “Well, if you don’t mind me saying so, I know you can pass. It’s not that you don’t know how to drive. It’s just that you’re so doggone nervous.
“I know a man who’s really great at helping kids who are afraid of driving. He runs a school. He’s kinda old, but he’s good. Been teaching kids to drive for 30 years now.”
So we are introduced to Ev McAllister who is a main character in the story. “What we need is to work on building up your confidence, young lady” He does this through driving lessons and taking her slowly to places that push her to confront the past.
There are a number of plot lines going on in this book. There is the mystery of who S.A. Green is; an author who wishes to remain unknown. A.S. Green wants to be known only through the books written. One of the books, “Eastern Crossing,” is already being used in schools. Green has never been seen. Green has an investment company handle all the money that the books generate.
When the old investment counselor is retiring he hands the account to a younger investment counselor who is a risk taker and embezzles funds from the account to pay for junk bonds. Then the market drops.
Another line follows an up-and-coming writer who is determined to find out just who S.A. Green is and write an article and let the world know the identity. But, as we read the story, there is a good reason why S.A. Green is not seen.
This is a well written book and holds together to the end. The ending is satisfying and that is all we can ask of a story.
Contact Dane at smdp_review@yahoo.com. Thank you for your readership.
