Sleepy Hollow Square: Ali joins her Aunt and cousin at a remote lake in Maine where thirty years ago something terrible happened.

 

When going through a box of books from her mother's childhood 13-year-old Ali finds a torn photo of her mother and Aunt Dulci as girls at a lake. All that remains of the third girl in the photo is a arm and the first letter of her name: 'T'. When Ali asks her mother about the photo, her mother grows pale and denies ever knowing anyone whose name began with T.

 

Ali absorbs this normal reaction until her Aunt Dulci and cousin Emma come over. Dulci has a proposition for Ali: stay the summer at the family's old lake house and watch 5-year-old Emma while Dulci works on her art. Ali is excited, but her mother is full of protests about how horrible and boring it is at the lake house - its why they stopped going 30 years ago. Ali is finally given permission, but knows there's a mystery to uncover.

 

This book was a lot of fun, I love how Hahn always works in shout-outs to classic kid fiction in her works. A cameo from a vintage Lenci doll (star of 'The Lonely Doll') was an unexpected bonus. She weaves certain themes of those books she references into the plot as well including Nancy Drew and Helen Cornish nearly drowning in 'The Bungalow Mystery', the loneliness of Edith in 'The Lonely Doll' profoundly influences Emma, and a subtle thread of class consciousness and justice reflects Ali's assignment to read 'To Kill a Mockingbird'.

 

The atmosphere was top-notch, there were just a few loose ends among Hahn's secondary cast of characters that kept it from being perfect.

I needed a change of pace and mood and topic and this book has been on my shelf for years. 

 

I really enjoy a good mountaineering story, and so far Heil does a great job setting the scene by describing the history of Everest mountaineering and the difficulties that climbers experience. I'm intrigued how he will portray the story of David Sharp, the climber who was passed by 40 people as he lay dying on the upper slopes of the mountain - when he gets to the core of the book.

 

Note: Dark Harvest is Book 2 in the series and works best if read after Book 1 simply because you get so much character development that carries over from one book to the next.

I really liked that Brooke, who suffered a brutal kidnapping in Book 1, isn’t all sunshine and roses. She is still walking the hard, dark path to recovery. Marissa, her mom, struggles with how best to help her but she’s doing her best. Brooke’s younger sister, Kelley, puts in a few appearances but we see far less of her than in Book 1 and I missed her. Seth continues to be my favorite character. He’s doing his best to navigate these choppy waters with Marissa and her family, along with his work and memories of his dead wife.

Marissa was hard to root for in this book. She’s really self-centered and I think the author intended for us to see that. However, I don’t see Marissa becoming aware of her flaw and then taking action to better herself. She’s really wrapped up on Seth. He wants to give them all a bit of space to allow Brooke the time to heal and Marissa the time and energy to help Brooke. However, Marissa takes this as rejection. Ugh! Why, Marissa? Why? I wanted to give her a little reality check. I can see why she has a long history of failed relationships.

I also have to mention Marissa in one more thing. This is a MINOR SPOILER. Marissa has failed to take her birth control pill religiously and guess what happens? Yep. This really pissed me off about Marissa. She’s a career woman in her 30s who has basically raised her daughters on her own after becoming unexpectedly pregnant at 16. She’s been down this road before and apparently didn’t learn her lesson. The pill doesn’t work 100% of the time but when you negligently forget to take the pill daily, you’re borrowing trouble.

OK, so let’s talk about the mystery because that’s what really kept me in this book. Someone has been targeting pregnant women but no bodies have turned up. Pretty early on we get to know something about the kidnappers so the majority of the book is a cat and mouse game between the cops and the Holt Foundation and the bad guys. The motivations of the kidnappers were layered and deeper than I initially expected. I really liked that about this mystery. Tori, oh Tori! I wanted things to come out better for you even as I knew you had to pay for what you did. Xander Wilcox, I wonder if you were always so arrogant? Definitely interesting ‘bad guys’.

Seth struggles on several levels in this book. Henry, the computer genius at the Holt Foundation, doesn’t mind breaking laws to get data (phone records, arrest records, utility info, etc.). Seth has retained his cop sense of right and wrong and is mightily uncomfortable about Henry’s activities. However Nathan Holt isn’t interested in pushing Henry to follow the letter of the law. After all, the Holt Foundation is about finding victims before it’s too late. Seth is also struggling to both respect the needs of Marissa’s family as a whole and be supportive to Marissa as his girlfriend. Then he realizes that he hasn’t fully dealt with the death of his wife Holly. He’s a complicated guy and I really enjoyed watching him overcome one hurdle after another.

The ending had a few surprises. Henry! Oh, my! I also like that Seth has wrapped up some of the lose threads of his life. I would have liked further character growth for Marissa because she is a twit in this book. 4/5 stars.

The Narration: Lisa Stathoplos and Corey Gagne did a really good job with this book. I really like Gagne as Seth and Stathoplos has a perfect voice for Marissa. She also does a great job with the voices for Kelley and Brooke making all 3 ladies distinct but still sound related. I especially liked the aggravated, arrogant voice for Xander. 5/5 stars.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Chris Patchell. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

Dark Harvest is the 2nd book in Chris Patchell's Holt Foundation Stories series. The Holt Foundation is a group helping victims and families of people who have been affected by violent crimes. The foundations founder Elizabeth Holt was a victim of a violent crime in her college. Just before her death she created the foundation. Which all comes to light in "In The Dark" book one of the series. You should really read book 1 to get all the backstory to the developments in this book. This book can be read as a stand alone. There are parts that would make more since in you read book 1 though. In this book Marissa and her daughters are still coming to terms with Brooke's kidnapping and the aftermath. But the Holt Foundation also have a new case. Young pregnant women are disappearing. A mid 40's Doctor with early onset Alzheimer's is doing stem cell experiments to cure himself and also selling off the babies of the pregnant moms to fund himself. He is taking the babies by c section of the young women he kidnaps and letting the mother's die. When young and pregnant Becky Kincaid comes up missing from the local baby store the team takes on the case. When Marissa finds out she is pregnant with Seth's Child she goes to a local Women's Clinic to help decide her options. This Women's Clinic is where the mystery starts to unfold. This is not just a mystery but also a romance with some real life stuff thrown in. Marissa and Seth are still exploring their new relationship, but Seth is still carrying a lot of baggage and is still hung up on his dead wife and her death. He also is trying to decide whether to go back to being a cop or staying at the foundation. Brooke is dealing with the PTSD from her kidnapping and not doing a very good job of it. Marissa is in the middle of Brooke and Seth and their problems, but she discovers she has a problem of her own. A Baby! The audiobook is dual narrated by Lisa Stathoplos, Corey Gagne as was book 1. Both of these narrators do a wonderful job with the book. They bring the story and the emotions from the pages to life extremely well. I like they they each have their own chapters. I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.