Under the Shadows

Lola Wicks #5

by Gwen Florio

"Florio's flawed, complex, compelling heroine faces challenges that are both gut-wrenchingly difficult and all too common today...Far above the crowd."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Grief has nearly consumed journalist Lola Wicks, but her latest assignment leads to a darkness she may never escape.

Lola Wicks is in bad shape--a family tragedy has nearly broken her in a way that her years reporting from war zones never did. Her friends, alarmed by signs that Lola is in the grip of a destructive addiction, hope that a freelance assignment will get her back on her feet. Only the threat of having her child removed persuades Lola to head to Salt Lake City to work on a puff piece about overseas adoptions.

But the assignment takes a dark turn when the teenager at the center of her story lands in jail facing a murder charge. Setting out to prove the youth's innocence takes Lola to her own dark place, and she's not sure if she'll ever be able to find her way back.

Praise for the Lola Wicks Mysteries:

"Compelling, realistically flawed characters and a timely story line...make this one of Florio's hardest-hitting mysteries yet."--Library Journal (starred review)

"A gutsy series."--The New York Times

"Florio captures the culture and poverty on reservations still suffering from greed and mismanagement in a ripped-from-the-headlines story with a shocking ending."--Kirkus Reviews

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Thriller

360 pages, Paperback

Published March 8, 2018

About the author

Gwen Florio is the author of the Lola Wicks crime series ("gutsy," says the New York Times) as well as SILENT HEARTS (Atria, 2018), a standalone set in Afghanistan. A new crime series starts in November 2020 with the publication of Best Laid Plans (Severn House). Her first novel, MONTANA, won the Pinckley Prize for debut crime fiction, and a High Plains Book Award. Florio is a veteran journalist who has covered stories ranging from the mass shooting at Columbine High School and the Oklahoma City bombing trials, to the glitz of the Miss America pageant and the more practical Miss Navajo contest, whose participants slaughter a sheep. She's reported from Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia, among other countries, as well as Lost Springs, Wyo. (population three). She lives in Missoula, Montana. She is represented by Richard Curtis,

Reviews

[Theresa Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again, Florio delivers an outstanding mystery with a heart-pounding ending.

The character Lola Wicks has been felled by the death of a loved one. A white woman who married into a Native American Indian family, Lola has the support of the “aunties”—the women on the reservation who come together, especially in times of crisis. But they, and Lola’s coworker Jan, have decided it’s time that she moves on with her life and takes better care of her eight-year-old daughter, Margarette. It’s a social worker threatening to remove Margarette from Lola’s custody that compels her to take a fluff piece about overseas adoption. Lola leaves her small-town Montana life to go to the comparatively big-town of Salt Lake City in the heart of Mormon country.

Initially, Lola wants to get out of writing the article, but when the teenager at the center of the story is accused of murder, things start to get interesting. Lola can’t help herself, the reporter in her has to follow every lead. The clues even send her to Vietnam. As with all Florio’s books, the characters are well-drawn and compelling, including the setting as character. Here, Lola tries to adjust to Mormon culture, meaning her beloved caffeine is not on the menu. Alcohol? I don’t think so. Also, Vietnam and its differences, particularly since she doesn’t speak the language.

Lola Wicks is a phenomenally likeable heroine. She eschews dresses and dress shoes. Rather, her closet is filled with gym shoes is various states of disrepair and hiking boots. I love Lola and I love this book.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Midnight Ink for the opportunity to read this book, which RELEASES MARCH 8, 2018.

For more of my reviews, please visit: http://www.theresaalan.net/blog

[Kathy Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Former foreign correspondent and now resident of Montana, Lolo Wicks is suffering from a deep depression after the death of her husband Charlie. She is taking pills to help her sleep, ignoring her responsibilities to her job, and ignoring her eight-year-old daughter. It takes the threat of having her child removed from her care and the intervention of the aunties - Charlie's relatives from the reservation - to begin her road to recovery.

Lola is sent to Salt Lake City to do what she considers a puff piece on the topic of adoption among the members of the Church of the Latter Day Saints -- the Mormons. Lola couldn't be less interested but it does get her away from the social worker who wants to meet with her. She learns when she arrives that the family she had come to interview was in the middle of a tragedy. Frank Shumway, adopted as a ten-year-old from Viet Nam and now an eighteen-year-old hockey star, is accused of killing the mother of his fiance, Sariah Ballard.

The Shumways and the Ballards were life-long best friends and next door neighbors. Frank, known by his friends as by his original name of Trang, and the Ballard kids - Kwesi who was adopted from Ghana and Tynslee - were all friends. Another friend is Malachi who is the son of the Donovan Munro, the editor who has sent her out on this story.

Gradually, Lola gets sucked into the drama surrounding the mystery. Tynslee is sure that Trang didn't kill her mother. The more she investigates, the more she learns that places his guilt in question. A lot of the mystery centers around what the Saints believe and the lifestyle they live. When Sariah's body is discovered by Bryce Shumway, his first call is to his Bishop instead of to the police. Lola is appalled at how the crime scene evidence is so compromised by the Elders tromping through the scene before the police are called. The Shumways are slow to get Trang a lawyer, also on the advice of the Elders.

Competing for front page news on the murder is the latest ruling from the church about a total lack of acceptance for gays and a total intolerance for sex among unmarried people. Tynslee and Trang have trashed their chances for a Temple wedding and Trang can no longer go on his mission trip because they are no longer "pure." Since Trang's trip was supposed to take him back to Viet Nam to find out what happened to the sister he had to leave behind, the kids were conspiring to raise the money to sent him to Viet Nam anyway.

The story filled with secrets that someone would and did kill to keep. As Lola unravels the mystery and becomes engaged in the story, she begins to recover from her profound grief at the loss of her husband. She manages to take some baby steps along the road to recovery.

This was a well-written mystery with remarkably engaging characters. While I was uncomfortable with the concept that Lola's depression was so deep that she was neglecting her child, I could understand the depth of her grief. I loved her support system in Montana and her final realization that family was a broader concept than she had thought. I am eager, now, to go back and read the earlier books in this series to find out more about Lola.

[Jim Crocker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love all of Gwen Florio’s Lola-Margaret-Bub stories! Here we find little Margaret mostly grown up to the point where she busts one about coffee on the first page. Oy!

Following that shocker, Lola is up to her neck in the soup once more. This time in the Big City! I can just see Lola driving south on Interstate 15 from Montana into Utah. Jeesh. That’s a view I barely remember in my rearview mirror fifteen years ago when I drove the same route in reverse up to good ole Montana / Montucky, where I have happily remained--except in my imagination and in various plotlines.

Under the Shadows is about big-city stuff. Certainly bigger stuff than in MSLA, that’s for sure. This tells me a lot about why I bailed on that particular life, and why I no longer fly anymore. However, I’m just a lightweight now. But Lola is back in her element on the trail of a good story, which takes her to places and realms you might be more than shocked to discover. Or not.

Check it out, and remember that Jim in Montana warned you first!

[Dorothy Crocker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A few nights ago I had an opportunity to hear Gwen Florio read from the long-awaited, much anticipated fifth book in her Lola Wicks series. I started reading as soon as I got home and stayed up late. As in Florio’s previous books, in Under the Shadows she explores a culture and landscape of which many of us are ignorant. This is the first book set in an urban landscape and Lola has been away from metropolitan areas for a long time. In this story, Lola’s husband Charlie has died almost six months prior and she is bereft. Grief strikes people in different ways and Lola is floundering and seeming to get worse. Lola has responsibilities, her job and her child, and she is failing badly at both. She can’t afford to stay lost in her grief.
Her daughter Margaret’s relatives on the Blackfeet Nation have given Lola an ultimatum, get yourself together or lose your daughter. Lola’s friend and colleague Jan gives her a chance to redeem herself with a relatively-easy assignment in Salt Lake City. The assignment, from a local magazine, is to interview two families who, like many other members of the Church of the Latter Day Saints, had adopted children from different countries and cultures and to find out how these adoptions had worked out.
The story twists and turns from there and I, for one, didn’t see the ending coming. Florio mixes in a number of characters, from her new editor and his son to the families she gets to know, all of whom have secrets they are desperate to keep. The characters are real and flawed and the consequences of their actions move the story forward. The issues raised by the story are compelling and are both taken from today’s headlines and are as old as humankind. Florio’s skill as a writer moves the story effortlessly.

[Anu · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my first book by Gwen Florio and I loved it. It is such a well-written book ( always the first criteria), the characters are well developed and one can feel the pain of the main character. As for the suspense, I would probably rate in 3.5 - 4.0 range. But will definitely recommend it to anyone

[Lois Tomlinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant!

Gwen Florio has done it again with Lola, this time overcoming a deep loss and solving a surprising mystery in Salt Lake City’s high church society. If you want a compelling read that keeps you guessing until the very end, you can’t do better than this well-written wild ride of emotional people who feel real. Thanks, Gwen, for another gem!

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know I said it in the last review - but I love this series. I am saddened to know that there are no more - yet. Small word, big meaning. Please, Ms. Florio, write another in the series. Ok, many more more in the series.

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved it, love all her books... but Lola c'mon, had you not been talking to Charlie so much you would have figured it out waaay before I did...:)

[Kathleen Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed this latest installment in a series I'd not read before. Yes, I read this as a standalone and it was terrific. Lola Wicks is mourning the loss of her husband, she's being harassed (I mean that kindly) by the "aunties" on the reservation, and now she's in Salt Lake City to write an article about adoption. Little does she know that this story is much bigger than she expected because one of the kids-now an adult- has been accused of murder. There are fascinating details about the LDS Church and Florio makes good use of her setting. Lola is flawed but realistic, pugnacious but not obnoxious, and smart. She's the person Trang, the accused, needs to solve the mystery. This is well written and quite informative. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I'm going to look for this series in the future.

[Kyle Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

When faced with an ultimatum from elders on the reservation, Lola Wicks is desperate to find a job and prove herself worthy as a mother and a member of society. She is handed a small job that will get her back on her feet, but it suddenly turns out much bigger than everyone expected.

This is the first book I have read in the Lola Wicks series, so some parts were hard to follow. The author does a good job of filling in the gaps enough with backstory and character development that the reader isn't confused if they are unfamiliar with the characters. It seems like Lola has seen her share of heartache and tragedy, and I would like to go back and start this series from the beginning.

This story is centered around the issue of international adoption, strict moral codes, and deception in the LDS community. Secrets are uncovered as the investigation progresses, and Lola struggles to make sense of the mess confronting her and figuring out who she can trust. There are plenty of bizarre twists and shocking turns that keep you guessing until the very end. There is some foreshadowing along the way that sets up the conclusion, but nothing is really clear until the last few chapters. Everything is nicely wrapped up in the end, complete with hints of things to come in the next installment.

I would recommend this book to fans of thrillers and suspense. I received this as a free ARC from Midnight Ink Books on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

The main character is unlikeable at times, but the story and the mystery that unfolds kept the pages turning.

[Carrie Hinkel-Gill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rarely give a 5 star review, unless a book so engrosses me that I can't stop turning the pages/stop listening. I really wanted to give this story a 3.5, but since Goodreads doesn't allow for half stars, I rounded up to 4.

I was initially intrigued, but that was probably because almost any book would do to wash the sludge of the previous book out of my head.

However, I began to get slogged down with inane chatter and an overabundance of detail that I began to find myself bored.

I was in chapter three and seriously considered doing something I almost never do - give up and move on to the next book. However, just like every TV show I watch, I give it at least half a season before giving up because it usually takes a bit for a series to get going.

That's what was wrong with this book - it took too long to get started. Maybe if I read the books that came before I might think differently, I don't know. But I didn't. I started with this book, and I wasn't hooked into this story until chapter five, which is too long for any story. Chapters one through four were sluggish and would have been better served with small, well-timed flashbacks that served to fill dead time, rather than weigh the beginning down the way they do.

I noticed a couple of continuity errors that should have been fixed before printing. They might seem like small details to some, but to me they were telling and disengaging. Scotch and Whiskey are not interchangeable. They are two totally different tasting liquors. On the other hand, Bourbon and Whiskey are definitely interchangeable because they are essentially the same, just that the name changes depending upon where you are drinking it. If in Kentucky, it's Kentucky Bourbon. I could go on. It's a fine point, but one that needed to be made.

Another continuity error that I found disengaging enough that I went back and verified: at one point the author refers to the character picking up a hotel glass and removing the cardboard cover from it, then refers to same a few pages later as a Styrofoam cup. Again, ticky-tack to some, but those who've worked in the industry know that only a "glass" glass is referred to by the word "glass" and comes covered by a round cover embossed with the hotel's logo or wrapped in a paper sleeve with the hotel's logo, where as Styrofoam and plastic cups are individually wrapped in plastic wrap and always referred to as "cups".

The characters are strong and so is the story, which is why I felt that the story ended up bogged down in places by extraneous imagery. Honestly, I felt this story could have benefited much more from a faster pace than it had. The only time it picked up was toward the end.

Not only that, but I felt the author waited too long to add alternate viewpoints. She could have told some of the early chapters from Tynslee's point of view without giving away anything, since she does play a role in this story and I felt she got shafted a bit. Plus, it would have been more interesting and given the reader a much needed break from a depressed main character. (To say any more would give spoilers.)

Yes, despite the things I pointed out, the story itself was interesting, once I dug it up to the surface.

While I enjoy a good mystery, I'm not sure yet if I'll chase down the other books in which Lola Wicks makes an appearance simply because I like mystery stories that move along at a decent pace and are not bogged down in the manner this one was.

[August Norman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gwen Florio’s Under the Shadows, the fifth in the Lola Wicks mystery series, is a heart-breaking punch in the chest that twists and turns through darkness before finally coming back to the light. Also, it’s a darned good mystery. You don’t need to have read the other books in the author’s series to get to know Lola. Florio lets the reader know right away that this reporter is dealing with the loss of her husband, and not in a healthy way. Faced with the tough love of her friends and the threat of losing custody of her daughter, Lola takes a last-chance out-of-town gig covering what should be a feel-good piece about adoption, confident she can fake her way through with the help of her stash of illegal painkillers. When the story leads to a murder investigation, Lola must overcome her grief, or be lost under her shadows forever. With vivid and flowing prose, Florio paints the American Northwest in luscious tones that let you feel the early snow on Montana’s prairie, smell the delicious aroma of fry bread, and see Utah’s Salt Lake City, from the greatness of its temples to the repression of its families. Lola Wicks has flaws, but anyone who’s ever gone through the agony of the loss of a partner will both understand her, and root for her to come out the other side of the shadows.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the fifth and most recent of the Lola Wicks mystery series and my favorite so far. Lola, grieving to the point of breakdown, flees an intervention to take a journalism assignment about international adoptions focusing on Mormon families living in Salt Lake City.

Although it’s supposed to be a fluff piece to help Lola find her stride, as soon as she arrives in Salt Lak,e she finds the star of her story has killed his next door neighbor, the mother of his fiancé.

It quickly becomes about drugs, homosexuality, and the iron-fist of the tenets of the Church of Latter Day Saints, as well as Vietnam’s somewhat doubtful orphanage adoptions.

I like the main character, Lola Wicks. She’s plucky, resourceful and human.

My credulity, however, was stretched by a hurried trip to Vietnam that she made to gather information which fell almost instantly into her lap one she was there.

Still, I intend to keep reading local author Gwen Florio’s work – especially as they become more nuanced as her career progresses.

[Skip · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fifth book in the Lola Wicks series. She is a reporter, but unable to function due to the violent death (in the fourth book) of her husband. In fact, her daughter is being cared for by the reservation "aunties." Following an intervention, Lola reluctantly agrees to travel to Salt Lake City to write a piece for the Mormon newspaper about the popular adoption practices of the Mormons. However, she arrive to find herself in the middle of a murder mystery with an adopted Vietnamese teenager Frank (formerly Trang) arrested for killing his next door neighbor's and fiancee's mother. Lots of drama, eventually sending Lola back to Vietnam, where she makes several interesting discoveries despite being hassled by the local police for suspected drug possession. Intrigue and deep family secrets abound.

[John Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very satisfying mystery. Lola's grief, when seen through her early adult years as an independent soul, followed by the horrible and unexpected loss of Charlie, help elevate what happens to a much higher level. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Emily D · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. A fast read and page turner, good view into Mormon ideology and all that. But, some parts were too contrived and unbelievable as Lola works through the investigation, especially the Vietnam trip.

[Tara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting story, not especially well- written.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaging and fast-paced. Characters were believable and easy to engage with.

[Gretchen Stein · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5, her best in the series, I am so sad that this is the last one

[Ginger · Rating 3 out of 5]

good story
interesting insight into LDS life and their adoption of Native American children

[Marc Stergionis · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a Montana journalist who spends quite a bit of time in Salt Lake City, I found this very interesting and accurate. And it happens to be a good story!

[Margie Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tense, tough, and tragic. What's worse than being a grieving widow, being a grieving murderer? The non-stop action won't let a reader go.

[Kristin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book didn't do it for me. I did not realize it was part of a series, and I think I may have liked it better had I read a few of the others. It felt like being plopped right in the middle of something, so I wish I had had more of a heads-up.

Nevertheless, this story handles grief of losing a spouse impeccably well, and I liked how Florio made this an integral part of the story. Other than that, I unfortunately did not care about the other characters, and that's a shame, because I really wanted to. It scratched the surface of too many, never letting the reader truly know any of them.

[Joellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

good stuff. I enjoyed this book even when the main character frustrated me. I wanted to smack her one occasionaly. but she grew on me in a good way

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pleasantly surprised by story and the writing. Engaging story had me awake hours after bedtime! Looking forward to reading the previous novels in the series.