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The Heart to Kill
Savvy law student Sarah Wasser returns to her apartment to find two telephone She has not been chosen for a coveted summer internship, and her best friend from high school has just murdered her two children. Unwilling to admit the internship failure to family and friends, the quick thinking Sarah secures a position on JoBeth’s defense team and returns to her sleepy hometown in South Carolina.
But Sarah is not well-prepared for working in a community rife with duplicity and betrayal, and her efforts are met with the benevolent amusement of the senior law partner, the resentment of the trial attorney, the rush to judgement by the folks of Eight Mile Junction, and discovery of her father’s role in the degradation of JoBeth.
But Sarah is not well-prepared for working in a community rife with duplicity and betrayal, and her efforts are met with the benevolent amusement of the senior law partner, the resentment of the trial attorney, the rush to judgement by the folks of Eight Mile Junction, and discovery of her father’s role in the degradation of JoBeth.
200 pages, Paperback
Published November 30, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 17, 2017
To say Sarah Wasser’s life was turned on its heels in the time it took to listen to two phone messages would be a gross understatement. Those messages would leave her with only one option, to go home to Eight Mile Junction to privately lick her wounds and to publicly defend an old best friend for the murder of her two small children in whatever way she could. What Sarah wasn’t prepared for was how different her small town seemed now that she has grown up and seen both life in the big city and life as a determined law student. The Eight Mile Junction she returned to was too small, in mind, compassion and forgiveness.
As she secures a position on JoBeth’s defense team, Sarah will face more than an uphill battle both at the office and in the eyes of her very domineering, judgmental father, the epitome of ego, control and brutal condescension.
When the ugly truths behind why JoBeth did what she did comes to the surface, demons will be uncovered, deceit will be exposed and pillars of the community will topple. Through it all, Sarah will learn who she is and what she stands for, as well as the frail human condition of being flawed, that it will always show when the foundations of lie is built on lies.
Dorothy Place’s THE HEART TO KILL is a raw look at the lies we will perpetrate to save ourselves when it suits our own purposes and the fallout that can destroy lives, love and an entire town. Filled with subplots that sometimes begged for more attention, this tale of one woman’s greatest sin becomes the sins of a town that would rather keep things swept under the rug.
I received this copy from Dorothy Place in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.
Publisher: Stephen F. Austin University Press
Publication Date: November 30, 2016
ISBN-10: 162288129X
ISBN-13: 978-1622881291
Genre: Thriller
Paperback: 200 pages
Available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
For Reviews & More: http://tometender.blogspot.com
As she secures a position on JoBeth’s defense team, Sarah will face more than an uphill battle both at the office and in the eyes of her very domineering, judgmental father, the epitome of ego, control and brutal condescension.
When the ugly truths behind why JoBeth did what she did comes to the surface, demons will be uncovered, deceit will be exposed and pillars of the community will topple. Through it all, Sarah will learn who she is and what she stands for, as well as the frail human condition of being flawed, that it will always show when the foundations of lie is built on lies.
Dorothy Place’s THE HEART TO KILL is a raw look at the lies we will perpetrate to save ourselves when it suits our own purposes and the fallout that can destroy lives, love and an entire town. Filled with subplots that sometimes begged for more attention, this tale of one woman’s greatest sin becomes the sins of a town that would rather keep things swept under the rug.
I received this copy from Dorothy Place in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.
Publisher: Stephen F. Austin University Press
Publication Date: November 30, 2016
ISBN-10: 162288129X
ISBN-13: 978-1622881291
Genre: Thriller
Paperback: 200 pages
Available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
For Reviews & More: http://tometender.blogspot.com
February 8, 2017
Sarah has her life planned out, she's going to finish law school and do everything she can to make her father proud of her. Upon receiving some devastating news about her old high school friend Jo Beth, Sarah makes the decision to return home and it changes her whole life. Now Sarah will do everything she can to help Jo Beth, but how much can she accomplish before her own world crumbles?
This was a very emotional read, especially due to Jo Beth's horrible circumstances. Ms. Place really helps set the mood for the Southern town with all the hospitality on top, but darkness lurking underneath it all, reminiscent of "The Garden of Good and Evil." Sarah's relationships between her parents is also very interesting to see how they change from the start to end of the book. I rated this four stars, and look forward to seeing more work by Dorothy Place.
This was a very emotional read, especially due to Jo Beth's horrible circumstances. Ms. Place really helps set the mood for the Southern town with all the hospitality on top, but darkness lurking underneath it all, reminiscent of "The Garden of Good and Evil." Sarah's relationships between her parents is also very interesting to see how they change from the start to end of the book. I rated this four stars, and look forward to seeing more work by Dorothy Place.
February 10, 2017
“She looked to the sky, searching for the moon. Now a small sliver, it seemed to be hanging precariously from the branch of a nearby tree, like an ornament, belonging more to the tree than the sky. Then, after taking a few steps back, Sarah watched the moon fall off the branch and return to its proper place among the evening stars. Funny thing about perspective, how a small change in one direction can dramatically affect everything else.” – The Heart to Kill by Dorothy M. Place
Sarah Wasser has her life planned out for her by her father. Since she was little, she always knew that one day, she was to become a lawyer. Now a law student, she comes home to two messages on her answering machine. One of which is bad news about an internship over the summer and the other is even worse news when her close friend from High School has just been charged for murdering her two children. Sarah decides to go back home at Eight Mile Junction over the summer to see what she can do to help defend her best friend. What she’s not ready for is that behind every secret uncovered throughout the trial, there might be all sorts of betrayal.
Dorothy M. Place’s writing is exceptional. You can really see that she writes with passion. Her plot is on point and there’s always something new to learn when it comes to such a difficult case. Cheating and sexual abuse might be amongst difficult and uncomfortable topics to read about but cases like these can happen in real life. Her characters are so realistic in the way that nearly everyone has made at least one mistake. Even the ending is true to life since, just like it didn’t end the way that I would have anticipated, life also rarely goes on as planned. Things change, people change and so many things can impact someone’s life. Sometimes, it can affect one’s life for the worse. I thought it was really interesting how the place where Sarah and her friend JoBeth first met just so happened to be the same place that the murder happened. It kind of symbolized, in my opinion, her return to the past. It felt like all of what happened over the summer helped her find closure and with every secret unraveled, you can see how much she matures and finds herself through it all.
I recommend this book to anyone who likes a book about crime, betrayal and uncovering secrets.
I rate it a 4 out of 5!
Sarah Wasser has her life planned out for her by her father. Since she was little, she always knew that one day, she was to become a lawyer. Now a law student, she comes home to two messages on her answering machine. One of which is bad news about an internship over the summer and the other is even worse news when her close friend from High School has just been charged for murdering her two children. Sarah decides to go back home at Eight Mile Junction over the summer to see what she can do to help defend her best friend. What she’s not ready for is that behind every secret uncovered throughout the trial, there might be all sorts of betrayal.
Dorothy M. Place’s writing is exceptional. You can really see that she writes with passion. Her plot is on point and there’s always something new to learn when it comes to such a difficult case. Cheating and sexual abuse might be amongst difficult and uncomfortable topics to read about but cases like these can happen in real life. Her characters are so realistic in the way that nearly everyone has made at least one mistake. Even the ending is true to life since, just like it didn’t end the way that I would have anticipated, life also rarely goes on as planned. Things change, people change and so many things can impact someone’s life. Sometimes, it can affect one’s life for the worse. I thought it was really interesting how the place where Sarah and her friend JoBeth first met just so happened to be the same place that the murder happened. It kind of symbolized, in my opinion, her return to the past. It felt like all of what happened over the summer helped her find closure and with every secret unraveled, you can see how much she matures and finds herself through it all.
I recommend this book to anyone who likes a book about crime, betrayal and uncovering secrets.
I rate it a 4 out of 5!
May 10, 2017
Review at: Bright Copy Book Review
*This book was gifted to me by the author. The below review is my honest opinion*
I hate doing this, but I really struggled to get through this one.
Let me start with the plot. Sarah, our main character, is in her second year of law school and just found out she got turned down for a summer internship. Shortly after, she hears that her best friend from high school murdered her two children and decides to go home to help with her defense, much to her overbearing father's disappointment. It was interesting to see things from a lawyer's perspective, but there was barely any action. I was left with really weird questions: for one, why did she buy a baby blanket when she has no kids? And how did that add to the story at all? Who picks up raw beef and eats it with salt? Most importantly, this book is entirely about a case in court, so why don't we learn the verdict?
I was also confused with the writing. It's in third person but focuses on Sarah's perspective. I got really confused when the author was talking about Sarah's father and calling him Sam, etc. The setting would have been a good idea: small town where everyone is connected and there are barely any secrets... that could have been great for a murder trial, but the characters did not evoke any sort of emotion in me and the people and town were not described in detail.
I hated Sarah. Straight up hated. She was naïve and completely blind as to what was going on around her. I couldn't care less about Jo-Beth or whether she was guilty or innocent. The love interest was horrible, I felt absolutely no connection between them and Al was so completely bland. Honestly, there wasn't a single character I liked or felt any sort of attachment to.
The supposed 'plot twists' were apparent from the very beginning so they were not exciting reveals to me. I think it might have been more of a coming of age story, but it seems like it's advertised as a book about a murder trial.
*This book was gifted to me by the author. The below review is my honest opinion*
I hate doing this, but I really struggled to get through this one.
Let me start with the plot. Sarah, our main character, is in her second year of law school and just found out she got turned down for a summer internship. Shortly after, she hears that her best friend from high school murdered her two children and decides to go home to help with her defense, much to her overbearing father's disappointment. It was interesting to see things from a lawyer's perspective, but there was barely any action. I was left with really weird questions: for one, why did she buy a baby blanket when she has no kids? And how did that add to the story at all? Who picks up raw beef and eats it with salt? Most importantly, this book is entirely about a case in court, so why don't we learn the verdict?
I was also confused with the writing. It's in third person but focuses on Sarah's perspective. I got really confused when the author was talking about Sarah's father and calling him Sam, etc. The setting would have been a good idea: small town where everyone is connected and there are barely any secrets... that could have been great for a murder trial, but the characters did not evoke any sort of emotion in me and the people and town were not described in detail.
I hated Sarah. Straight up hated. She was naïve and completely blind as to what was going on around her. I couldn't care less about Jo-Beth or whether she was guilty or innocent. The love interest was horrible, I felt absolutely no connection between them and Al was so completely bland. Honestly, there wasn't a single character I liked or felt any sort of attachment to.
The supposed 'plot twists' were apparent from the very beginning so they were not exciting reveals to me. I think it might have been more of a coming of age story, but it seems like it's advertised as a book about a murder trial.
March 20, 2017
This story.... these characters... it's a journey, that's for certain. For me it was the characters that made it so I'll focus there. As has happened from time to time, I don't fall in line with the norm so it didn't come as a surprise to me when I loathed some of the characters I feel like I was supposed to love and adored those that were written not so lovable.
Let's start with our protagonist. Sarah Wesser, jelly spined law student desperate for daddy's approval (even though daddy is a tyrant and a bully), returns home to her small town of Eight Mile Junction. She has been turned down for an internship that daddy all but arranged for her and starts working for the law firm who is defending the best friend she's blown off for the past few years, JoBeth. See, JoBeth hasn't been important to Sarah lately but now she's the key to a job so here we are.
JoBeth is the one character I can't come down on one side or the other on. She's a small town girl who only ever wanted to be a small town girl. She married her high school sweetheart, had a couple of kids and the rest is a small town happy ending. Only not for JoBeth. No, JoBeth killed those little darlings after Prince Charming dumped her, setting the stage for her old pal, Sarah, to ride in on daddy's coat tails and save her.
JoBeth's lawyers, John-Two and Al, both are firmly entrenched in the good ol boys club. John-Two is a chauvinistic blow hard who has no idea he's a chauvinistic blow hard. He serves his purpose in the story though.
Al is the brooding, handsome, mystery man. He bored me.
Now, all of that sounds like maybe I didn't love the book but you'd be wrong! I really did. I loved finding out the small town secrets and uncovering betrayal. My emotions swayed from sympathy to horror at the intricate story and I was invested in the outcome. I look forward to reading more of Dorothy Place's work.
Let's start with our protagonist. Sarah Wesser, jelly spined law student desperate for daddy's approval (even though daddy is a tyrant and a bully), returns home to her small town of Eight Mile Junction. She has been turned down for an internship that daddy all but arranged for her and starts working for the law firm who is defending the best friend she's blown off for the past few years, JoBeth. See, JoBeth hasn't been important to Sarah lately but now she's the key to a job so here we are.
JoBeth is the one character I can't come down on one side or the other on. She's a small town girl who only ever wanted to be a small town girl. She married her high school sweetheart, had a couple of kids and the rest is a small town happy ending. Only not for JoBeth. No, JoBeth killed those little darlings after Prince Charming dumped her, setting the stage for her old pal, Sarah, to ride in on daddy's coat tails and save her.
JoBeth's lawyers, John-Two and Al, both are firmly entrenched in the good ol boys club. John-Two is a chauvinistic blow hard who has no idea he's a chauvinistic blow hard. He serves his purpose in the story though.
Al is the brooding, handsome, mystery man. He bored me.
Now, all of that sounds like maybe I didn't love the book but you'd be wrong! I really did. I loved finding out the small town secrets and uncovering betrayal. My emotions swayed from sympathy to horror at the intricate story and I was invested in the outcome. I look forward to reading more of Dorothy Place's work.
January 30, 2018
I found this book a little difficult to get into, but once I did, I wanted to find out what was going to happen. I didn't like the main character, Sarah, much in the beginning. She seemed quite cold at first, but then, as I met her father and realized how much he dictated her life, including her choice of career, I understood her a little more. Also, as the mother of an attorney, I understood her callousness, colored by stress, when she was in law school, since I went through that stress, vicariously, with my own son.
I enjoyed the descriptions of the small southern town and the tight-knit community that already had a verdict, signed, sealed and delivered, against Sarah's hometown friend, JoBeth, who'd been accused of murdering her children.
JoBeth herself is a pile of contradictions, not just in terms of the murder accusations, but also in terms of her relationship with everyone in the town. The entire situation unfolds in an interesting way, but I found myself being able to predict what was going to happen.
The one thing that stuck in my craw was why in the world would Sarah "fall" for the attorney Al, with whom she was working on JoBeth's trial? He comes across as an arrogant, pompous, self-centered egotist who doesn't care whom he steps on to get what he wants, and Sarah's no exception. One day, she'll look back and put Al into the #MeToo category. What she ever saw in him is beyond me, especially since he fits into the same category as her controlling father.
I liked the development of Sarah's mother, who was a real character, someone you'd expect to meet in real life, someone who has flaws but also tried to solve every problem that comes along, even though she knows she cannot. I also felt compassion for Sarah when her childhood canine companion had medical problems. The men, for the most part, are slime and remain the root of all evil in this book, and the women do not triumph; rather, they're victims.
I give this book between three and four stars. It has many interesting plot twists and turns, lots of foreshadowing, but also many things that could be obvious to an observant reader.
I enjoyed the descriptions of the small southern town and the tight-knit community that already had a verdict, signed, sealed and delivered, against Sarah's hometown friend, JoBeth, who'd been accused of murdering her children.
JoBeth herself is a pile of contradictions, not just in terms of the murder accusations, but also in terms of her relationship with everyone in the town. The entire situation unfolds in an interesting way, but I found myself being able to predict what was going to happen.
The one thing that stuck in my craw was why in the world would Sarah "fall" for the attorney Al, with whom she was working on JoBeth's trial? He comes across as an arrogant, pompous, self-centered egotist who doesn't care whom he steps on to get what he wants, and Sarah's no exception. One day, she'll look back and put Al into the #MeToo category. What she ever saw in him is beyond me, especially since he fits into the same category as her controlling father.
I liked the development of Sarah's mother, who was a real character, someone you'd expect to meet in real life, someone who has flaws but also tried to solve every problem that comes along, even though she knows she cannot. I also felt compassion for Sarah when her childhood canine companion had medical problems. The men, for the most part, are slime and remain the root of all evil in this book, and the women do not triumph; rather, they're victims.
I give this book between three and four stars. It has many interesting plot twists and turns, lots of foreshadowing, but also many things that could be obvious to an observant reader.
April 13, 2017
Author Dorothy Place does a masterful job humanizing JoBeth, a traumatized mother who drowns her two children. Through the eyes of JoBeth's friend, Sarah Wasser, we are drawn into the dark, secretive side of a small Southern town where neglect and indifference ruin the lives of JoBeth and her children.
As we follow law student Sarah on her quest for answers to the reasons for the horrific crime, we see the timid young woman gain courage and maturity. I thought this was a terrific book.
As we follow law student Sarah on her quest for answers to the reasons for the horrific crime, we see the timid young woman gain courage and maturity. I thought this was a terrific book.
October 27, 2016
WOW!!! I'm not sure what to really say about this book! Right when you think you know it all, right when you think you have it all figured out.... NOPE!!! This book will have you so lost from the real world into what's going on! Page turner and one that will keep you up all night reading! A remarkable read!
October 29, 2017
Somehow Dorothy makes comprehensible, without justifying or sympathizing with, the horrifying crime of a mother killing her kids. A very tricky balance. I applaud the evolution of Sarah as she achieves at independence from her bossy dad. Sorry if this wasn't preceded by a "spoiler alert".
April 23, 2017
This book introduces you to law student Sarah Wasser, returning home to join her high school friend's defense team.
With The Heart to Kill, her début novel, Dorothy M. Place has created a memorable suspense story. It is a compelling read, drawing you close to Sarah, her life, feelings, and to the case. Dorothy M. Place knows how to keep you glued to the story, you want to find the truth and/or reasons why as much as Sarah. Sarah is highly believable, tenderly introduced by the author; in brief: I liked Sarah a lot. The story develops in a calm way, thus underlining its intensity; it comprises authentic characters, interesting turns, and has a good flow.
This is a book for you if you like suspense stories with believable characters and psychological aspects, and if you appreciate subtle suspense.
Recommended!
With The Heart to Kill, her début novel, Dorothy M. Place has created a memorable suspense story. It is a compelling read, drawing you close to Sarah, her life, feelings, and to the case. Dorothy M. Place knows how to keep you glued to the story, you want to find the truth and/or reasons why as much as Sarah. Sarah is highly believable, tenderly introduced by the author; in brief: I liked Sarah a lot. The story develops in a calm way, thus underlining its intensity; it comprises authentic characters, interesting turns, and has a good flow.
This is a book for you if you like suspense stories with believable characters and psychological aspects, and if you appreciate subtle suspense.
Recommended!
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