Broken Places

by Sandra Parshall

Book Overview

Summer is deadly in the mountain community of Mason County, Virginia. Deputy Sheriff Tom Bridger and veterinarian Rachel Goddard are caught in a maelstrom of lies that stretch far into the past and suspicions that threaten the future. Cam and Meredith Taylor are murdered within hours of one another, and Rachel is dragged into the case because she heard--but didn't see--Cam's murder. The Taylors arrived in Mason County as volunteers in the 1960s...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590587103
• ISBN13: 9781590587102
• Release Date: June 2012
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.86 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Secret Pasts

The roots of this suspenseful murder mystery go back to the Vista Program, the War on Poverty. A small group comes to poor, rural Mason County, Virginia in the 1960's to serve a year. A few remained to live there, including Cam and Meredith Taylor, owner and editor of the local money-losing and virtually bankrupt local newspaper. Cam attempts to raise or borrow money but is rebuffed by all he solicits. Then the bodies of both are found, separately, murdered. The prime suspect, a cartoonist who had recently moved to the town, is the son of a former Vista worker. He is a friend of Rachel Goddard, a veterinarian who also relocated to Mason County. Each has a secret from the past, he in New York City, she involving her family. The past, of course, muddies Deputy Sheriff's Tom Bridger's investigations into the murders, as well as his relationship with Rachel (which is complicated by the presence of his former girlfriend arriving on the scene because she's the daughter of the murdered couple). Making his task more difficult is a subsequent murder and an attempt on Rachel's life. The plot is finely hone, leading the reader forward to a most unexpected ending. Of course, the specter of Rachel's secret, which keeps popping up throughout the tale, was previously revealed in "The Heat of the Moon," one of two preceding volumes in this series. The characters are well-drawn and the inter-play between Tom and Rachel and Tom's former girlfriend add to the book's tension. Recommended.

Sandra Parshall's Latest

I have a real fondness for mysteries where years-old events impinge on the present (resulting, of course, in murder), and Sandy Parshall's Broken Places is a gripping example. I'd previously read the manuscript, but I was immersed all over again in its dense pleasures. As in Disturbing the Dead, the second entry in the series, it stars veterinarian Rachel Goddard and Deputy Sheriff Tom Bridger, mixing murder with romance in the mountains of rural southwestern Virginia. The main supporting characters from Disturbing the Dead are back, including one of my favorites, Mrs. Barker, the mountain woman with "the sight," a clever take-off on Nora Bonesteel. Three new characters take front and center: a reclusive cartoonist new to the community, the owner of a bankrupt newspaper who drives everyone crazy begging for money to resurrect it, and an old girlfriend of Tom's who has her own resurrection in mind. There are plenty of secrets, past and present, but I'm not going to even hint at them. When movie trailers give plot points away, I want to throw my popcorn at the screen. All I'll say is pick up the book -- you won't be disappointed.

Great Series

This was my first read in the Rachel Goddard series and I loved it. The characters were well written and the plot really had me guessing. I have already added the others in the series to my wishlist and will definitely read more by this author. Great writing, great characters, great action & suspense. Highly recommended.

More great suspense from Sandra Parshall

In the stunning sequel to Disturbing the Dead, veterinarian Rachel Goddard is unwillingly drawn into another murder investigation when her childhood friend, Ben Hern, becomes a prime suspect in the deaths of 60s activists Cam and Meredith Taylor. Rachel's faith in Ben soon drives a wedge between her and Sheriff Tom Bridger, as does the return of Lindsay Taylor--the victims' daughter and Tom's ex-girlfriend. But the answers lie buried in the past, and as Rachel and Tom dig for answers, ugly secrets begin to emerge. Sandra Parshall has delivered yet another taut and captivating mystery, filled with complex characters and brimming with suspense. Best of all, I didn't even come close to guessing "whodunit." I'm betting you won't either.

fabulous amateur sleuth

In Mason County, Virginia, veterinarian Rachel Goddard and her assistant Holly Turner come to the home of noted cartoonist Ben Hern to see his famous dog and cat. They overhear a nasty spat between newspaper publisher Cam Taylor whose paper is in financial trouble, and Hern , who also uses the name of artist Benicio Hernandez. Ben refuses to give Cam any money to save the paper. Rachel and Holly leave Ben's mansion, but sees Cam's car on the side of the road so they stop to offer assistance, but he is not there. They hear gunfire in the nearby woods and go to look; they find Cam's corpse. Not long after that, Cam's house burns to the ground; after the building cools a dead woman whose body has bullets is found inside. The sheriff assumes the second corpse is Cam's wife Meredith. Another person is killed and Ben's mom vanishes. If that is not enough Rachel's lover deputy sheriff Tom Bridger's former girlfriend Leslie Taylor, daughter of two of the dead, needs her ex allegedly for solace. Fearing for their loves and needing to know what happened, Rachel makes inquiries only to learn her late friend Cam apparently was trying to extort money from various sources like Ben. The third Rachel Goddard veterinary whodunit (see Disturbing the Dead and Heat of the Moon) is a fabulous amateur sleuth with some police procedural elements as the heroine recognizes the potential danger she and Holly are in. Thus she investigates the homicides, but what she finds tear into her gut as she links the killings back to 1960s activism, 2009 blackmail and other secrets that have left corpses behind and threaten relationships with a destruction of trust. Harriet Klausner