Review: Deftly Crosses Genres: For Fans of Women's Fiction/Mystery/Suspense/Romance/Paranormal
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 19, 2014
I just finished the novel “The Life You Left” by Carmel Harrington and I want to say that my mind has been blown. That may sound pretty strong, but here’s why: I have never considered myself a mystery/suspense kind of reader. This cross-genre book has me rethinking the box I’ve put myself in. Had I stuck to my own category, I would have missed this terrific read.I cracked this book open because I loved Harrington’s debut novel “Beyond Grace’s Rainbow.” At the very least, I thought, it will be well written since the first one was. I just didn’t know if I’d be able to stick with it.Right out of the gate, I was won over. What an opening.‘Sarah, I’m not coming home tonight. If you love me, you will give me the space I need… Tell the children I love them.’As a wife and mother myself, I had to wonder what I’d do if I received such an email from my husband. I wanted to know where he was and what happened. As the story unfolded under the skilled supervision of Harrington, I was treated to watching Sarah Lawler, the protagonist, struggle with her own feelings as a rejected woman and the financial pit she was thrown into while she stayed strong for her confused children. Her humanity is three-dimensional. She’s never a saint or a martyr…she has her rage, and she drinks her wine. However, she keeps her eye on the prize and does what needs to be done. Isn’t that every woman’s story in a way?She has the support of her twin brother, James, who is a complicated character unto himself, and provides enough of the “hot factor” to please a dedicated romance and chick lit reader like myself. James is a private detective with a best friend in the Irish Gardai, and cannot help playing sleuth when a mystery presents itself. He’s Sarah’s rock, and his character helps reveal, teaspoon by teaspoon, the trauma of Sarah’s early years.Another layer to the book is the fact that Sarah has been blessed (or cursed?) with clairvoyance and other psychic gifts. She dreams, intuits, and feels beyond the five senses. And to top it all off, her best friend since childhood is Edward, a benevolent angel who functions to lead Sarah to learn and accept truths about who she authentically is as a person.When her children’s teacher is murdered, Sarah’s psychic ability kicks into overdrive, and her pull to save others from a similar fate ensnares her brother, the police detective, her mother-in-law, and the children’s kind and upstanding principal into various investigations.In my opinion, there was a real danger of going a saccharine or “pat” route with the various stories in the novel, but Harrington deftly frosts these well-known themes with a fresh icing. I read a lot, and I was pleasantly surprised by the twists this story took. I also appreciated the freshness of the voice and the uniqueness in the dialogue. Each character’s voice rang with a distinct tone.This is a solid book with a memorable story, and it crosses genres from Women’s Fiction, to Mystery, to Paranormal, to Romance. I want a sequel. Just as with Harrington’s debut novel, the characters are still with me, and the world was drawn so vividly I still have a movie of it in my head. I’m not finished hanging out with Sarah Lawler and the people who surround her.