This troubled ten-year-old lives to fight… John Daniel watches as they discover the body of his eight-year-old sister found beneath a granite boulder. Already branded as different, he becomes the chief suspect in her murder. The case grows cold as he grows into manhood. JD ranges from abusing his family to building a church and preaching, while building his empire. Sometimes he’s a do-gooder; sometimes an insane tormenter. While he fears his own capacity to love and hate, his greatest fear is for his salvation. Can he find redemption before he is struck down? If you like family sagas, you will love this high-octane psychological thriller!
Born and raised in the rural Maine of the 1950s, Sue Baumgardner subsequently spent several years living in various states across the eastern US. With a minion of good friends scattered across the land, it was back to Maine, family, and old friends that Sue returned in her retirement. Did we say retirement? With the time she had always hankered for, Sue picked up pen, took a dozen writing classes and dove into the career she had only dreamt of prior to her retirement.
An author who is not tied to one genre, Sue has written Fiction and Non-fiction, for adults, middle readers and young children.
Sue Baumgardner also writes a blog on her dream-visits with those ‘beyond the veil.’ Fascinating stuff! Look for it here: http://dyingtotalkwithyou.com/
Be prepared to take some notes, or plenty of ginkgo biloba, because there are over forty different characters that are mentioned by name in this book. Don’t let that scare you off though, as only about a dozen have any significant relevance throughout the narrative. Sue Baumgardner uses the characters to breathe life into Winterhaven. She sews together an A/B storyline with a setting that not only feels believable but is inhabited by lifelike people that I slowly got to know on a personal level. The main narrative sinks below the surface rather than developing into anything that resembles a structured plot that stays afloat all the way to the end. There is so much digression throughout the story that amounted to nothing more than dead end tangents, that I was having trouble understanding what the story was really about. A family drama saga, with just a touch of crime suspense, is what you’re going to get from “Where Sin Increased”. I think even calling it a drama is a bit of a stretch, because the story is actually quite pleasant for the most part. The story reads like a character driven soap opera centered within Winterhaven - as the days of their lives come to pass.
This literary fiction is a real eye-opener for dealing with sin, cruelty, love, hate ~ and mental illness. I've never read another book that deals with death in this phenomenally spiritual manner. You will love and hate as never before as you read these chapters. In the end, your eyes shall be opened with grace.