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Winter Haven
Thirteen years after Vera gamble's little brother ran away from their Texas home, his body washes ashore on the remote island of Winter Haven, Maine. Vera goes to claim the corpse and discovers the impossible: her brother hasn't aged a day since last she saw him. Determined to uncover what happened, she is confronted by unearthly fog, disturbing locals, and stories of lost colonies and a vengeful witch. Beyond the forest where no creature dares to live, her only hope is the mysterious owner of a dilapidated mansion on a rocky cliff. But will this solitary man assist her, or is Vera Gamble doomed to disappear forever into yet another winter haven legend?
251 pages, Paperback
First published March 28, 2011
19 people are currently reading
376 people want to read
About the author
Athol Dickson
14 books422 followersAthol Dickson's parents were living on the road when he was born. His first bed was a drawer lined with towels in a travel trailer. He has loved road trips ever since. Boating is a passion, too. Athol owns three boats, and once lived aboard a yacht full-time while cruising the Gulf of Mexico and the USA's Atlantic coast. But Athol's nine novels are proof he can sit still and write if he's with his wife of nearly 30 years, The Lovely Sue. They live in Southern California, where Athol is at work on novel number ten, the second in a series call "The Malcolm Cutter Memoirs" about a multi-millionaire chauffeur who would rather solve mysteries for his clients than hang out on his yacht. What bliss: a novel that combines boats and road trips!
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 88 reviews
August 27, 2022
Real Rating: 3.5* of five, rounded down because there's a helluva slog in here
I RECEIVED AN ARC FROM THE PUBLISHER. THANK YOU.
My Review: In my ongoing, possibly misguided, quest not to die above the neck before I do below it, I asked Bethany House for an ARC of this author's latest (in 2008) christian-themed mystery. I don't know why they said yes, but they did, and then I never reviewed it. Sinful wicked shame on me!
There was a time in the early Aughts that I made a concerted effort to believe in the whole christian malarkey-fest. (I was pursuing a most callipygian, but Jesusy, guy.) It was a complete and abject failure on every level, since he didn't give up the goodies despite my going to church with him! The nerve! But I found some very interesting books....
Supernatural shenanigans? Teased; not delivered. Much depends on the voice the author creates when reading a first-person narrative. Vera Gamble is a ninny, the spit-and-image of a Mary Sue. Hanging the story on her was not satisfying. The death of her brother seems to me to be a weirdly xianized form of fridging. The entire story resolves into an address to the Problem of Evil. It is, as I am sure you've already twigged by now, utterly unconvincing as such. (I've never read anything, even straight-out apologetics, that resolve the Problem of Evil.)
There is a great deal of cartoonishly overstated Wickedness imputed to the townspeople of Winter Haven. It is, peculiarly enough, this over-egging of the pudding that gave me the "in" to this book's successful level: Gothic fiction is heightened, exaggerated, and therein its charm. It's a feature, not a bug, of the Gothic tropes that they're over every kind and sort of top. Without that the story would collapse under the weight of its silliness. Once I got that spark to light the brain-fuse I began to enjoy myself. I read the christianizing bits as irony, though they were decidedly not meant that way. It gave me a way to derive enjoyment from what was otherwise a truly dreary slog.
I RECEIVED AN ARC FROM THE PUBLISHER. THANK YOU.
My Review: In my ongoing, possibly misguided, quest not to die above the neck before I do below it, I asked Bethany House for an ARC of this author's latest (in 2008) christian-themed mystery. I don't know why they said yes, but they did, and then I never reviewed it. Sinful wicked shame on me!
There was a time in the early Aughts that I made a concerted effort to believe in the whole christian malarkey-fest. (I was pursuing a most callipygian, but Jesusy, guy.) It was a complete and abject failure on every level, since he didn't give up the goodies despite my going to church with him! The nerve! But I found some very interesting books....
Supernatural shenanigans? Teased; not delivered. Much depends on the voice the author creates when reading a first-person narrative. Vera Gamble is a ninny, the spit-and-image of a Mary Sue. Hanging the story on her was not satisfying. The death of her brother seems to me to be a weirdly xianized form of fridging. The entire story resolves into an address to the Problem of Evil. It is, as I am sure you've already twigged by now, utterly unconvincing as such. (I've never read anything, even straight-out apologetics, that resolve the Problem of Evil.)
There is a great deal of cartoonishly overstated Wickedness imputed to the townspeople of Winter Haven. It is, peculiarly enough, this over-egging of the pudding that gave me the "in" to this book's successful level: Gothic fiction is heightened, exaggerated, and therein its charm. It's a feature, not a bug, of the Gothic tropes that they're over every kind and sort of top. Without that the story would collapse under the weight of its silliness. Once I got that spark to light the brain-fuse I began to enjoy myself. I read the christianizing bits as irony, though they were decidedly not meant that way. It gave me a way to derive enjoyment from what was otherwise a truly dreary slog.
December 3, 2008
Another one I absolutely did not want to put down. This book proves there doesn't need to be obscene language or immorality to be interesting and engaging. It was fantastic. My husband asked me if I was coming to bed and I said, "I want to but I just can't! I have to see what happens!" Winter Haven had me guessing through the whole book and just when I thought I had it figured out it turns out I didn't! Loved it till the very end.
July 14, 2021
I really enjoyed the storyline for this book. It jumped around a bit which really confused me. Also, some of the "facts" were real facts but changed around? That was weird. All in all a good read.
September 19, 2015
I was really not enjoying this book until I got to the very end, which almost made up for the turgidness of the prose. The last chapter saved the book from getting an even lower rating.
This is a story of Vera, a young woman (much younger than she acts) who sets off to pick up the body of her brother who has washed up on the shore of a small Maine island. How we got there, and why he doesn't appear to have aged in 13 years, are the "mystery" of the book. The answer, when it is finally revealed, is fairly straightforward, and not unsatisfying.
In the course of finding that out, though, Vera must deal with her own guilt over not stopping her brother from running away, and her belief that her "visions" of what happened to her brother are actually punishments from God. She must also deal with unkind islanders, a "ghost", and a too-handsome man (with a wandering eye) who might be friend or might be foe.
One might suppose that all of those factors would combine to make a compelling story. Alas, that is not the case. Dickson gets too bogged down in his first-person narration to let the story run naturally. We are teased with hints and glimpses of what's really going on, but Vera's overdrawn naivete prevents us from finding anything in the story that will allow us to be drawn in.
This is a story of Vera, a young woman (much younger than she acts) who sets off to pick up the body of her brother who has washed up on the shore of a small Maine island. How we got there, and why he doesn't appear to have aged in 13 years, are the "mystery" of the book. The answer, when it is finally revealed, is fairly straightforward, and not unsatisfying.
In the course of finding that out, though, Vera must deal with her own guilt over not stopping her brother from running away, and her belief that her "visions" of what happened to her brother are actually punishments from God. She must also deal with unkind islanders, a "ghost", and a too-handsome man (with a wandering eye) who might be friend or might be foe.
One might suppose that all of those factors would combine to make a compelling story. Alas, that is not the case. Dickson gets too bogged down in his first-person narration to let the story run naturally. We are teased with hints and glimpses of what's really going on, but Vera's overdrawn naivete prevents us from finding anything in the story that will allow us to be drawn in.
September 2, 2009
This book was ok. I liked the mystery part of it and was surprised by the ending and liked the fact that this book was written with clean subject manner with no immorality or obscene language. However I did not like the flowery description of each and every thing. I also had a hard time following some of the dialogue especially when Vera was describing some of Siggy’s conversations. I was also frustrated with Vera’s conversations with God and her apparent paranoid personality and lack of strength. Also there seemed to be a lot of gothic / cultish material in the book – everything from the description of the trees, alters in the woods, and various ghost stories – which Vera seems to believe. Overall would not recommend.
March 25, 2013
Mystery meets supernatural superstitions meets faith...this book has all of that packed into it. It's well-written, suspenseful, and completely surprising. I love how the author took a mystery that had every sign of being other-worldy in nature and turned it into something so easily and simply explained, yet at the same time an explanation that deepens faith. We so often forget how far-reaching and exhaustive the works of God are, and that His plans span decades. This story is a great reminder.
March 17, 2017
This is a really GOOD book. Very cleverly written. In depth characterizations, mystery, history, and a bit of spooky thown in! I could truly relate to Vera's lack of confidence and her shy, mousy personality, a result of her overbearing father and the loss of her mother and brother. Yet, through the story, she finds herself, and discovers how to climb out of the darkness that was her past.
Highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
October 2, 2008
The description on the jacket of this book sounded great, but it turned out to be just silly. I don't know why I read the whole thing, except that I guess I kept waiting for it to get better! It never did.
February 13, 2011
It was really slow. But the ending and theme redeemed it. Dickenson created a unique story, I only wish he had a more engaging writing style.
October 12, 2017
I stumbled upon this book on a shelf at the train station. The description seemed captivating enough so I shoved it into my bag and got on the train. I ended up not reading it at all that weekend, and read other books before I finally picked this one up.
I'm glad I finally made the effort to read it. First off, any book that starts with a map, I'm sold. After the map, the mystery hooked me.
Vera Gamble is a woman in her mid-twenties leading a sad, lonely life, persistently avoiding the dark memories of her past. She lives in Dallas, Texas, her only remaining family her father, living with Alzheimer's in a nursing home. Within the first few pages we're introduced to a 13-year-old tragedy from Vera's past, when she receives a phone call her long lost brother's body had been found on a small island far off the coast of Maine.
The mystery deepens when we learn Vera's brother, Siggy, lived with Autism, and spoke only through Bible verses. He had Savant Syndrome enabling him to memorize the Bible and recite it in seven different languages. How did this 15-year-old challenged young man make it across the country where his body was found washed up on a beach? He couldn't possibly have traveled the distance by himself, could he? The police investigation 13 years old surmised he must have been kidnapped.
Vera travels to the isolated island of Winter Haven, shrouded in fog, where the few villagers are strangely rude or silent, and largely absent from the quiet streets. Vera is shown her brother's body in the only "facility," if it can be called that, available to the islanders, the Packing Shed, where the fisherman's catch is kept on ice.
Vera is at first insistent the body in Packing Shed couldn't possibly be her brother's. It's too small. It had been 13 years; Siggy's body should be that of a 28-year-old man. All evidence to the contrary, the island's police chief presents her with a tag on a lanyard found with the body, with Siggy's name, the Dallas address and phone number from when they were children, and, in her now-deceased mother's handwriting, the words, "I am not dangerous," for those unaware of Siggy's diagnosis. If the body is not Siggy, how did this person get this tag?
The police chief persists in his investigation, and Vera is shocked to finally confront the body to discover not only is it really her brother, but he remains unchanged from when she last saw him when he left the house at the age of 15. How could this be? What, or whom, had Ziggy found in this place that caused his death?
She is plagued by disturbing memories of her childhood; her mother dying and her faith-healer preacher father's insistence they should not call a doctor; by her father's sermons calling upon God to praise him for sending "Prophet Siggy" to their congregation. Her father is abusive and heavy-handed in his strict religious beliefs, her mother subservient, and Siggy, absent. Her memories of her childhood, experienced through "episodes," possibly seizures, were some of the most disturbing portions of the book for me.
During her search for answers, Vera must fight the "outsider's syndrome," not being an islander, she is not taken in or accepted by the villagers. They don't seem to want her there. She must reside at the home of the hateful, argumentative Widow Abernathy, cloaked in everpresent black, who has the only available place for her to sleep, the small island having no actual hotel. The Widow seems to dislike her upon sight, and she's up to some awfully suspicious activity in the cellar.
According to the widow, the island is haunted by a witch, Evangeline, and by the ghosts of lost pilgrims, shipwrecked on the island hundreds of years before. The island setting is spooky, dark, and forbidding, with deep woods and sheer cliffs, all of which Vera must combat to find the truth of her brother's death. All on her own, since the islanders will give her no assistance, she bravely crosses the island to find Bleak Beach where her brother's body washed up. It is there she runs into the equally mysterious Evan Frost, the solitary wealthy man who owns nearly half the island, and lives part of the time in his rundown mansion. But, this handsome man is definitely hiding something. There's strange noises seemingly falling Vera around the island and outside the Widow's home she's pelted with rocks from Bleak Beach after she visits its shores, despite the Widow's warnings for her to steer clear. There's a circle of standing stones in the woods, where it appears sacrificial offerings are made. Everything and everyone seems determined to prevent Vera from discovering the truth of her brother's final moments, but she is committed to the truth, no matter what it costs her.
I was fairly riveted to the book, the dreary October weather we're experiencing at present provided a perfect backdrop, and I finished it in under a week. The book was scarier than I expected, and I'm glad I took a chance on it and stuck it in my bag at the train station! I would likely read another book by Athol Dickson.
I'm glad I finally made the effort to read it. First off, any book that starts with a map, I'm sold. After the map, the mystery hooked me.
Vera Gamble is a woman in her mid-twenties leading a sad, lonely life, persistently avoiding the dark memories of her past. She lives in Dallas, Texas, her only remaining family her father, living with Alzheimer's in a nursing home. Within the first few pages we're introduced to a 13-year-old tragedy from Vera's past, when she receives a phone call her long lost brother's body had been found on a small island far off the coast of Maine.
The mystery deepens when we learn Vera's brother, Siggy, lived with Autism, and spoke only through Bible verses. He had Savant Syndrome enabling him to memorize the Bible and recite it in seven different languages. How did this 15-year-old challenged young man make it across the country where his body was found washed up on a beach? He couldn't possibly have traveled the distance by himself, could he? The police investigation 13 years old surmised he must have been kidnapped.
Vera travels to the isolated island of Winter Haven, shrouded in fog, where the few villagers are strangely rude or silent, and largely absent from the quiet streets. Vera is shown her brother's body in the only "facility," if it can be called that, available to the islanders, the Packing Shed, where the fisherman's catch is kept on ice.
Vera is at first insistent the body in Packing Shed couldn't possibly be her brother's. It's too small. It had been 13 years; Siggy's body should be that of a 28-year-old man. All evidence to the contrary, the island's police chief presents her with a tag on a lanyard found with the body, with Siggy's name, the Dallas address and phone number from when they were children, and, in her now-deceased mother's handwriting, the words, "I am not dangerous," for those unaware of Siggy's diagnosis. If the body is not Siggy, how did this person get this tag?
The police chief persists in his investigation, and Vera is shocked to finally confront the body to discover not only is it really her brother, but he remains unchanged from when she last saw him when he left the house at the age of 15. How could this be? What, or whom, had Ziggy found in this place that caused his death?
She is plagued by disturbing memories of her childhood; her mother dying and her faith-healer preacher father's insistence they should not call a doctor; by her father's sermons calling upon God to praise him for sending "Prophet Siggy" to their congregation. Her father is abusive and heavy-handed in his strict religious beliefs, her mother subservient, and Siggy, absent. Her memories of her childhood, experienced through "episodes," possibly seizures, were some of the most disturbing portions of the book for me.
During her search for answers, Vera must fight the "outsider's syndrome," not being an islander, she is not taken in or accepted by the villagers. They don't seem to want her there. She must reside at the home of the hateful, argumentative Widow Abernathy, cloaked in everpresent black, who has the only available place for her to sleep, the small island having no actual hotel. The Widow seems to dislike her upon sight, and she's up to some awfully suspicious activity in the cellar.
According to the widow, the island is haunted by a witch, Evangeline, and by the ghosts of lost pilgrims, shipwrecked on the island hundreds of years before. The island setting is spooky, dark, and forbidding, with deep woods and sheer cliffs, all of which Vera must combat to find the truth of her brother's death. All on her own, since the islanders will give her no assistance, she bravely crosses the island to find Bleak Beach where her brother's body washed up. It is there she runs into the equally mysterious Evan Frost, the solitary wealthy man who owns nearly half the island, and lives part of the time in his rundown mansion. But, this handsome man is definitely hiding something. There's strange noises seemingly falling Vera around the island and outside the Widow's home she's pelted with rocks from Bleak Beach after she visits its shores, despite the Widow's warnings for her to steer clear. There's a circle of standing stones in the woods, where it appears sacrificial offerings are made. Everything and everyone seems determined to prevent Vera from discovering the truth of her brother's final moments, but she is committed to the truth, no matter what it costs her.
I was fairly riveted to the book, the dreary October weather we're experiencing at present provided a perfect backdrop, and I finished it in under a week. The book was scarier than I expected, and I'm glad I took a chance on it and stuck it in my bag at the train station! I would likely read another book by Athol Dickson.
December 24, 2024
I was really not enjoying this book until I got to the very end, which almost made up for the turgidness of the prose. The last chapter saved the book from getting an even lower rating.
This is a story of Vera, a young woman (much younger than she acts) who sets off to pick up the body of her brother who has washed up on the shore of a small Maine island. How we got there, and why he doesn't appear to have aged in 13 years, are the "mystery" of the book. The answer, when it is finally revealed, is fairly straightforward, and not unsatisfying.
In the course of finding that out, though, Vera must deal with her own guilt over not stopping her brother from running away, and her belief that her "visions" of what happened to her brother are actually punishments from God. She must also deal with unkind islanders, a "ghost", and a too-handsome man (with a wandering eye) who might be friend or might be foe.
One might suppose that all of those factors would combine to make a compelling story. Alas, that is not the case. Dickson gets too bogged down in his first-person narration to let the story run naturally. We are teased with hints and glimpses of what's really going on, but Vera's overdrawn naivete prevents us from finding anything in the story that will allow us to be drawn in.
This is a story of Vera, a young woman (much younger than she acts) who sets off to pick up the body of her brother who has washed up on the shore of a small Maine island. How we got there, and why he doesn't appear to have aged in 13 years, are the "mystery" of the book. The answer, when it is finally revealed, is fairly straightforward, and not unsatisfying.
In the course of finding that out, though, Vera must deal with her own guilt over not stopping her brother from running away, and her belief that her "visions" of what happened to her brother are actually punishments from God. She must also deal with unkind islanders, a "ghost", and a too-handsome man (with a wandering eye) who might be friend or might be foe.
One might suppose that all of those factors would combine to make a compelling story. Alas, that is not the case. Dickson gets too bogged down in his first-person narration to let the story run naturally. We are teased with hints and glimpses of what's really going on, but Vera's overdrawn naivete prevents us from finding anything in the story that will allow us to be drawn in.
August 22, 2018
Na het lezen van dit boek kijk ik er met gemengde gevoelens op terug. Het verhaal komt naar mijn mening te langzaam op gang en heeft iets te veel mysterieuze momenten waardoor het juist vaag wordt, in de negatieve zin van het woord. Als die vreemde aanvallen van Vera Gamble eerder uitgelegd waren, in plaats van ze eerst als dromen te behandelen, was het misschien minder zweverig voor mij geweest. Maar nu haakte ik bijna af.
Wat nog gezegd moet worden: aan het eind komt er wel op alles een antwoord. Dat is een pluspunt, dan heb ik me er dus niet voor niets doorheen geworsteld. En de afronding is op z'n minst gezegd ook netjes gedaan. Duidelijke afronding, zonder dat het einde uitgerekt wordt. Vandaar ook alsnog de 3/5*.
Wat nog gezegd moet worden: aan het eind komt er wel op alles een antwoord. Dat is een pluspunt, dan heb ik me er dus niet voor niets doorheen geworsteld. En de afronding is op z'n minst gezegd ook netjes gedaan. Duidelijke afronding, zonder dat het einde uitgerekt wordt. Vandaar ook alsnog de 3/5*.
May 23, 2017
This book gives a perspective on what effects a fearful, people pleasing, don't dare question God, I need to look good, I dare not fail parent can have on innocent children. The mental turmoil and confusion can destroy faith, reason, and understanding and can lead to questioning ones self, questioning the motives of others, and questioning one's purpose in life. The book has 333 pages and could have been a better read if much of the unnecessary fill would have been eliminated. I skimmed over about 1/4 of the text.
February 17, 2023
I love Athol Dickson's writing style. This is my second book I've read by this author and I loved them both. When Vera is summoned to Winter Haven to identify her brother Siggy's body, she's shocked to discover the brother she hasn't seen in thirteen years, since Siggy was 15, hasn't aged at all. But that's not the only mystery she encounters in Winter Haven, a town filled with secrets and unfriendly inhabitants.
November 25, 2018
Meh. Our heroine was just too..mousy, I guess, and kept going over the same thing again and again. My husband and I listened to audio version on a trip and I told him if this was a book, I'd skip the whole middle and get to the end to see the mysteries solved. It did resolve satisfactorily, but all in all, just meh.
July 5, 2017
Only thing I didn't like is it's a little wordy and descriptive. It takes a little cult religion, a little folklore, a little mental instability, a little mystery and mixes it all together for an enjoyable read. Vera's likable and the ending is satisfying.
June 22, 2021
I enjoyed the mystery of the book and diving through the other-worldly aspects of the setting, to find surprise in the simple explanation of the mystery. Wasn't a huge fan of the mousy main character
May 21, 2017
There are so many books in this world to love. This one tops the list and blows the others out of the water.
May 30, 2017
Good mystery, although rather odd.
March 26, 2018
In depth characterizations a little mystery & history. A little weird at times, but, yet suspenseful.
March 31, 2018
This book started out slow and wasn't really sure where it was going. Overall it was an interesting read.
July 6, 2018
A solid story from an author who doesn't disappoint.
July 17, 2020
This is a mind bending book that would be great to discuss afterwards.. Definitely written from a Christian world view though outside of the box as well.
October 3, 2020
An interesting adventure with unexpected twists and turns. I have high appreciation for the graphic details of the characters and their environment.
January 31, 2023
A great read to the very last page.
I've decided to read ALL of Athol Dickson's books.
I've decided to read ALL of Athol Dickson's books.
October 7, 2023
Clean and intriguing!
November 18, 2023
I got half way through and felt like a had a crater under me from the amount the wheels were spinning and the story line was going nowhere.
October 15, 2012
I read WINTER HAVEN first of all because of the title (who wouldn't want one of those), and secondly because Athol Dickson's books came with good words from places like Publisher's Weekly, Library Journal, Christian Fiction Review, and the New York Times. Not to mention he is a multiple Christy Award nominee and winner, and this particular book is one of four in his new "Christy Collection."
Early on, I realized it was a bit dark and foreboding compared to my usual fare -- fantastic, even. But before any of his many fans start to argue, I must confess there are children that delve into scarier things than I usually read, so no arguments there. However, there was an almost haunting beauty to his prose that drew me on, along with the hope he was going somewhere other than the path I first found myself on during those early pages. And I was not disappointed.
Vera was a young woman I instantly felt sorry for. Alone with an unusually troubled past, made better only by her attachment to an autistic brother who spoke only in scriptures. A brother who disappeared thirteen years before the story's opening, and whose body had recently washed up on an island off the coast of Maine.
By this time, Vera has become an accountant who found most of her security in the predictability of numbers. Living alone in a small apartment, she is hesitant at the daunting prospect of identifying and claiming the body after all these years. But away she goes to the remote location, not only to do her duty, but to perhaps find some closure in the greatest sorrow of her life.
Imagine then, what a turn she took (not to mention readers) only to discover the boy had not grown into a man, or even aged beyond the year he had disappeared. That he was still wearing around his neck the laminated note card their anxious, long-dead, mother had penned for him which read, "I am not dangerous."
Which is all the information I can give you, dear readers, without handing out spoilers regarding this gripping, near-gothic tale. One which had echoes of that long ago favorite author, Daphne du Maurier, but... not quite. No, and as you read farther on, not really. For while this tale of Winter Haven was made up of enough mystery to more than keep me turning pages, the prose was the sort to remind me of the poetics of James Dickey, or Eudora Welty. Those masters I could never sit down and read without having a pen to underline passages with.
All of which is enough for me to recommend this book to anyone who likes a story that you can't put down even when you would like to. Except for one very important thing. The believability of it. The lengths Athol Dickson goes to convince us that such things not only could happen, but have probably already done so many times over. This, in my opinion, makes WINTER HAVEN a book that more than deserves its Christy recognition. So, don't miss it. Meantime, I'm off to read the other three.
Which, I suppose... makes me a fan.
Early on, I realized it was a bit dark and foreboding compared to my usual fare -- fantastic, even. But before any of his many fans start to argue, I must confess there are children that delve into scarier things than I usually read, so no arguments there. However, there was an almost haunting beauty to his prose that drew me on, along with the hope he was going somewhere other than the path I first found myself on during those early pages. And I was not disappointed.
Vera was a young woman I instantly felt sorry for. Alone with an unusually troubled past, made better only by her attachment to an autistic brother who spoke only in scriptures. A brother who disappeared thirteen years before the story's opening, and whose body had recently washed up on an island off the coast of Maine.
By this time, Vera has become an accountant who found most of her security in the predictability of numbers. Living alone in a small apartment, she is hesitant at the daunting prospect of identifying and claiming the body after all these years. But away she goes to the remote location, not only to do her duty, but to perhaps find some closure in the greatest sorrow of her life.
Imagine then, what a turn she took (not to mention readers) only to discover the boy had not grown into a man, or even aged beyond the year he had disappeared. That he was still wearing around his neck the laminated note card their anxious, long-dead, mother had penned for him which read, "I am not dangerous."
Which is all the information I can give you, dear readers, without handing out spoilers regarding this gripping, near-gothic tale. One which had echoes of that long ago favorite author, Daphne du Maurier, but... not quite. No, and as you read farther on, not really. For while this tale of Winter Haven was made up of enough mystery to more than keep me turning pages, the prose was the sort to remind me of the poetics of James Dickey, or Eudora Welty. Those masters I could never sit down and read without having a pen to underline passages with.
All of which is enough for me to recommend this book to anyone who likes a story that you can't put down even when you would like to. Except for one very important thing. The believability of it. The lengths Athol Dickson goes to convince us that such things not only could happen, but have probably already done so many times over. This, in my opinion, makes WINTER HAVEN a book that more than deserves its Christy recognition. So, don't miss it. Meantime, I'm off to read the other three.
Which, I suppose... makes me a fan.
February 28, 2011
"Do not seek the truth, and find no evil."
Is there a more spiritually poignant--or intellectually alluring--tagline than this?
So, why Winter Haven? A few words on the story and the writing.
The Story: Winter Haven is a town on an island of the same name slouching listlessly across the Gulf of Maine. Its inhabitants, isolated by fifty miles of seawater from mainstream reality and unimpeded by centuries of somewhere else's progress, defy such progress and create a reality of their own. And they're fine with that. Until one of them places a phone call.
On the surface, Vera Gamble of Dallas, Texas, is unremarkable. A mousy accountant, her self-imposed life of obscurity comprises work, rented movies, frozen pizza and being taken advantage of. And she's fine with that. Until the phone call comes.
Vera's autistic brother, Siggy, missing for thirteen years, has washed up on Winter Haven's shore. On a rare impulse, Vera slips the comfortable prison of her double-deadbolted apartment and ventures to Winter Haven to claim Siggy's body. Immediately, she meets with her first of many shocks on this island full of mysteries. Like Winter Haven, time and distance play tricks on Siggy--he still appears to be the fifteen-year old boy he was when he ran away from home.
So Vera takes her first faltering steps on the road to discovering the truth about Siggy's demise, the island's secrets, but mostly about herself. A collection of quirky townspeople--oh, has Mr. Dickson captured the small-town Mainer!--propel and impede Vera in her quest. She stumbles awkwardly into a mystifying tale of a vanished Pilgrim colony, around the eerie specter of the woman reputed to be the reason for the Pilgrim's plight, through the dusty rooms of a dilapidated mansion from another era, and into the disturbingly enticing arms of handsome Evan Frost, who may not be who he seems to be...or might be who he seems to be...or who he seems to be might not be what she thinks...well, you get the picture.
Oh, and Vera has a few issues of her own, secrets she's suppressed since her childhood. The secrets burst back to the surface of her consciousness, unbidden and unwanted--no, deathly feared--and force her to face the reality of who she is. For Vera, too, has a 'handicap' to deal with, a malady that may just hold the key to her own sanity--just as Siggy's held the key to his.
The Writing: Athol Dickson. 'Nuff said.
Winter Haven is the suspense reader's dream. But it's more than that. Look back up at the tagline. Uh huh, you'll get much more out of it than you expect. If ya pass up this chance for a wicked good read, it'll be yer own fault, ayuh
Is there a more spiritually poignant--or intellectually alluring--tagline than this?
So, why Winter Haven? A few words on the story and the writing.
The Story: Winter Haven is a town on an island of the same name slouching listlessly across the Gulf of Maine. Its inhabitants, isolated by fifty miles of seawater from mainstream reality and unimpeded by centuries of somewhere else's progress, defy such progress and create a reality of their own. And they're fine with that. Until one of them places a phone call.
On the surface, Vera Gamble of Dallas, Texas, is unremarkable. A mousy accountant, her self-imposed life of obscurity comprises work, rented movies, frozen pizza and being taken advantage of. And she's fine with that. Until the phone call comes.
Vera's autistic brother, Siggy, missing for thirteen years, has washed up on Winter Haven's shore. On a rare impulse, Vera slips the comfortable prison of her double-deadbolted apartment and ventures to Winter Haven to claim Siggy's body. Immediately, she meets with her first of many shocks on this island full of mysteries. Like Winter Haven, time and distance play tricks on Siggy--he still appears to be the fifteen-year old boy he was when he ran away from home.
So Vera takes her first faltering steps on the road to discovering the truth about Siggy's demise, the island's secrets, but mostly about herself. A collection of quirky townspeople--oh, has Mr. Dickson captured the small-town Mainer!--propel and impede Vera in her quest. She stumbles awkwardly into a mystifying tale of a vanished Pilgrim colony, around the eerie specter of the woman reputed to be the reason for the Pilgrim's plight, through the dusty rooms of a dilapidated mansion from another era, and into the disturbingly enticing arms of handsome Evan Frost, who may not be who he seems to be...or might be who he seems to be...or who he seems to be might not be what she thinks...well, you get the picture.
Oh, and Vera has a few issues of her own, secrets she's suppressed since her childhood. The secrets burst back to the surface of her consciousness, unbidden and unwanted--no, deathly feared--and force her to face the reality of who she is. For Vera, too, has a 'handicap' to deal with, a malady that may just hold the key to her own sanity--just as Siggy's held the key to his.
The Writing: Athol Dickson. 'Nuff said.
Winter Haven is the suspense reader's dream. But it's more than that. Look back up at the tagline. Uh huh, you'll get much more out of it than you expect. If ya pass up this chance for a wicked good read, it'll be yer own fault, ayuh
May 11, 2011
I wanted so much to like this book more than I did. I've had the author recommended to me as proof that Christian Fiction is getting better, that it isnt all just embarrassing. And one level, it does work. The story is unique for a Christian book--a gothic mystery set in modern-day Maine--and the proselytising is better handled here than in other works I've read. Someday, though, I swear I will read a Christian book that doesnt have a preacher or preacher's kid as a main character. Not this one, though.
So why am I not rating this one higher? Well, because even though the conclusion is novel and the solution to the mystery cleverly wraps everything up, it took too long and too much repitition to get there. The book is told in the first person, through the eyes of a 24-year-old female with a CPA. but the author is a middle aged man. And I swear that much of the book FELT like a middle-aged man talking. Even though she was telling the story i didnt get a full enough view of who Vera Gamble truly WAS or why I should care about her. I also felt like the author came up with a cool idea ("what if you did this weird thing and then this thing and that thing happened?!") and then worked backward. So while the conclusion felt strong, the beginning and middle just sort of seemed to churn away at a weak sauce. Dickson is clearly skilled at the big picture but falls down on the details. So much of the character's interior journey was a bunch of repetitive gobbledygook that I found myself at several points forcing forward.
There is also a whirlwind romance for our protagonist. BUT WHY? What is the man's basis for attraction to her? We know she likes him because he's so handsome (another thing she "tells" the reader about fifty times) but other than him saying she did a thing he thinks is brave I found no reason for his attraction within the story. It seemed mechanical and designed to get the book to sell in Christian bookstores alongside all the other romances.
I'm giving the book three stars instead of two because I think there are places where it's obvious that Dickson has good craftsmanship with writing and were a pleasure to read. (The mailboat's journey to the island, for instance.) He also ought to get respect for coming up with a unique idea...something very hard to do in modern fiction.
But man, this book needs an editor--badly. In addition to the multiple reptitious passages about the tedious thoughts Vera was having we also get to experience this ACTUAL SENTENCE in the Kindle Edition: "I would of told you already". I expect things like that on blog comments. Not in books for which I've paid.
So why am I not rating this one higher? Well, because even though the conclusion is novel and the solution to the mystery cleverly wraps everything up, it took too long and too much repitition to get there. The book is told in the first person, through the eyes of a 24-year-old female with a CPA. but the author is a middle aged man. And I swear that much of the book FELT like a middle-aged man talking. Even though she was telling the story i didnt get a full enough view of who Vera Gamble truly WAS or why I should care about her. I also felt like the author came up with a cool idea ("what if you did this weird thing and then this thing and that thing happened?!") and then worked backward. So while the conclusion felt strong, the beginning and middle just sort of seemed to churn away at a weak sauce. Dickson is clearly skilled at the big picture but falls down on the details. So much of the character's interior journey was a bunch of repetitive gobbledygook that I found myself at several points forcing forward.
There is also a whirlwind romance for our protagonist. BUT WHY? What is the man's basis for attraction to her? We know she likes him because he's so handsome (another thing she "tells" the reader about fifty times) but other than him saying she did a thing he thinks is brave I found no reason for his attraction within the story. It seemed mechanical and designed to get the book to sell in Christian bookstores alongside all the other romances.
I'm giving the book three stars instead of two because I think there are places where it's obvious that Dickson has good craftsmanship with writing and were a pleasure to read. (The mailboat's journey to the island, for instance.) He also ought to get respect for coming up with a unique idea...something very hard to do in modern fiction.
But man, this book needs an editor--badly. In addition to the multiple reptitious passages about the tedious thoughts Vera was having we also get to experience this ACTUAL SENTENCE in the Kindle Edition: "I would of told you already". I expect things like that on blog comments. Not in books for which I've paid.
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