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The Outsiders #2
Where Secrets Reside
In Reynier, France, a sleepy hillside village peppered with ancient picturesque troglodyte cave dwellings, the locals value their privacy and their quiet life. Few tourists know it exits, which suits the locals just fine. One day, after a torrential storm, a townswoman happens across a terrified soaked toddler sitting alone in the woods. She brings the toddler into town, but no one recognizes the child. Suspecting the child's parents-rare tourists perhaps-must be lost or in trouble nearby, the locals organize a search party to find them. Their search leads instead to the discovery of a murder victim, another stranger, in one of the caves. As the investigation gets underway, the situation heats up. The residents of this once peaceful close-knit village find themselves terrorized by a possible serial killer. Facing their own mortality, they wonder whether the killer is an outsider, or one of their own? And who will be the next victim? Captain Pascal Goddard of the local Gendarmerie has his hands full; he must solve the biggest murder case the region has ever seen. The residents will not let him rest until he uncovers the killer's identity, putting a stop to the killing so a frantic village can return to normal. But as the list of suspects grows, some begin to worry that past history will paint them as guilty even if they are not; at least not of murder. Where Secrets Reside is the second book in the Outsiders series. Praise for the first book, In the Shadows- "Impeccable Characters. . . Susan Finlay's sense of character development in IN THE SHADOWS is impeccable. I'm very fond of this author and this story."-Susan Wingate, Author of the award-winning, #1 Amazon bestsellers Drowning and the Bobby's Diner series "Atmospheric, great setting. . . the descriptive prose drew me right into a convincing story from the outset and I can only imagine that the author's experience as a photographer, with a photographer's eye, must be the other side of the coin to the compelling eye for setting."-Raymond Nickford, Author of A Child From the Wishing Well and Aristo's Family "One of My Favorite Novelists. . . Susan Finlay is an accomplished writer who can bring a story to life. It was easy for me to get lost In the Shadows. I loved this Outsiders Mystery."-Mary Enck, Author
340 pages, Paperback
First published March 25, 2014
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34 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 17, 2018
A great who done it
Can’t wait to read winter tears. I so enjoy the first two books this one kept me on the edge trying to figure out who did it.
I am diffidently not a critic I just know if I am reading a book I so appreciate it that the first few pages grab my interest and hold me till the end. So yes my friends are going to hear about it.
Can’t wait to read winter tears. I so enjoy the first two books this one kept me on the edge trying to figure out who did it.
I am diffidently not a critic I just know if I am reading a book I so appreciate it that the first few pages grab my interest and hold me till the end. So yes my friends are going to hear about it.
April 23, 2015
There certainly are lots of secrets in this story. It's hard to find anyone in this large cast of characters who isn't hiding something -- some of them have kept their secrets through several generations of family in their small, fictitious, troglodyte village of Reynier, in France.
For people who haven't read the first book in The Outsiders series, In The Shadows, you will fairly quickly pick up on who's who in the village beginning with the village derelict, Bruno Houdan, to the two grandmothers, Fabienne Laurent and Jeannette Devlin, who love to gossip and meddle. I'm generally a big fan of mysteries that have crime scene floor plans, maps, or lists of characters preceding the story, but I found the very long list of characters (I think it's just about everyone in the village of Reynier plus a few from the neighbouring larger town of Belvidere) rather tedious (something like the long passages of begats in the Old Testament) and gave up on it part-way through trusting I would pick it all up along the way. Which I did without too much difficulty.
The first character we meet is Maurelle, an outsider who came to Reynier as a fugitive from a Scotland Yard investigation about a year earlier and is now married to the grandson of Fabienne, Dave Martin. He is a former policeman from the U.S. who now writes murder mysteries for a living. They live in a troglo (cave dwelling) with all the modern amenities and she is home alone during a fierce storm when the power goes off and she is hearing strange noises.
I also found the book a bit hard to get into. In the beginning, especially, there were many things happening, and the whole idea of a troglodyte village was totally foreign to me. (I hadn't read Book 1.) The first chapter was all about Maurelle with a great deal of minutia about the troglo and Maurelle's fears and, upon her leaving the troglo in the morning, the discovery of a lost toddler who had apparently weathered the storm alone in the forest all night. When Maurelle reaches the village, the story starts jumping around a great deal between the activities of various villagers who have gathered in the local café, then engage in a search for the tot's parents who are presumed lost somewhere in the vicinity of the village. This is when the 1st dead body is found, and the plot kicks in and becomes more engaging as multiple suspects are interrogated by the gendarmes from nearby Belvidere and more bodies turn up. The plot is intricate and full of surprises, realistic characters, and of course, many secrets that must be peeled away to reveal the truth -- and the murderer. I plan to read more books by Susan, including book 1 in this series.
For people who haven't read the first book in The Outsiders series, In The Shadows, you will fairly quickly pick up on who's who in the village beginning with the village derelict, Bruno Houdan, to the two grandmothers, Fabienne Laurent and Jeannette Devlin, who love to gossip and meddle. I'm generally a big fan of mysteries that have crime scene floor plans, maps, or lists of characters preceding the story, but I found the very long list of characters (I think it's just about everyone in the village of Reynier plus a few from the neighbouring larger town of Belvidere) rather tedious (something like the long passages of begats in the Old Testament) and gave up on it part-way through trusting I would pick it all up along the way. Which I did without too much difficulty.
The first character we meet is Maurelle, an outsider who came to Reynier as a fugitive from a Scotland Yard investigation about a year earlier and is now married to the grandson of Fabienne, Dave Martin. He is a former policeman from the U.S. who now writes murder mysteries for a living. They live in a troglo (cave dwelling) with all the modern amenities and she is home alone during a fierce storm when the power goes off and she is hearing strange noises.
I also found the book a bit hard to get into. In the beginning, especially, there were many things happening, and the whole idea of a troglodyte village was totally foreign to me. (I hadn't read Book 1.) The first chapter was all about Maurelle with a great deal of minutia about the troglo and Maurelle's fears and, upon her leaving the troglo in the morning, the discovery of a lost toddler who had apparently weathered the storm alone in the forest all night. When Maurelle reaches the village, the story starts jumping around a great deal between the activities of various villagers who have gathered in the local café, then engage in a search for the tot's parents who are presumed lost somewhere in the vicinity of the village. This is when the 1st dead body is found, and the plot kicks in and becomes more engaging as multiple suspects are interrogated by the gendarmes from nearby Belvidere and more bodies turn up. The plot is intricate and full of surprises, realistic characters, and of course, many secrets that must be peeled away to reveal the truth -- and the murderer. I plan to read more books by Susan, including book 1 in this series.
May 1, 2015
Where Secrets Reside
Where Secrets Reside had me involved from the first few paragraphs. There is a good amount of tension with startling events that generate quite a bit of intrigue. There is a sinister gloom that hangs over the heads of all the players on the stage of this story. Secrets are held close to each one until they need to be revealed. This is handled on an even disbursal instead of all at once. To me, I felt I needed to keep going just to discover each new realization.
There is a large cast of characters each with their own histories and with many overlapping. But the way the author has managed them, with thought to preventing any confusion, it all works brilliantly. Beginning chapters each have new scenes and a different player in the scene serves to bring a fast moving pace to the story. With every step of the way text is rich with detail that fills out a scene or character so that a reader has a clear image of an entire picture.
All the components of a good mystery are there to raise doubt, suspicion and intrigue. These are the elements that create an interesting but puzzling plot. There are many hints and clues that the reader can delve on their own to attempt to discover the answer to the mystery. At times I believe this is a red herring designed to distract from the real meaning that may become more obvious later.
The end is quite a surprise and fascinating how the writer has pulled it all together. Throughout the entire novel, I was entertained and immersed in the story. It's one that stays with you long after you stop reading.
Where Secrets Reside had me involved from the first few paragraphs. There is a good amount of tension with startling events that generate quite a bit of intrigue. There is a sinister gloom that hangs over the heads of all the players on the stage of this story. Secrets are held close to each one until they need to be revealed. This is handled on an even disbursal instead of all at once. To me, I felt I needed to keep going just to discover each new realization.
There is a large cast of characters each with their own histories and with many overlapping. But the way the author has managed them, with thought to preventing any confusion, it all works brilliantly. Beginning chapters each have new scenes and a different player in the scene serves to bring a fast moving pace to the story. With every step of the way text is rich with detail that fills out a scene or character so that a reader has a clear image of an entire picture.
All the components of a good mystery are there to raise doubt, suspicion and intrigue. These are the elements that create an interesting but puzzling plot. There are many hints and clues that the reader can delve on their own to attempt to discover the answer to the mystery. At times I believe this is a red herring designed to distract from the real meaning that may become more obvious later.
The end is quite a surprise and fascinating how the writer has pulled it all together. Throughout the entire novel, I was entertained and immersed in the story. It's one that stays with you long after you stop reading.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews