Letters in the Attic

Annie's Attic Mysteries #4

by DeAnna Julie Dodson

Up in her grandmother’s attic in Stony Point, Maine, Annie Dawson finds a stack of old letters from her childhood friend Susan Morris. Annie remembers Susan fondly and would like to get back in touch, but nobody seems to know what’s become of her. Her friends at The Hook and Needle Club aren’t much help either. All they remember is that Susan left town more than twenty years ago to marry a very wealthy man, but none of them is quite sure who he was. And Annie can find no record of any marriage.

The more Annie searches, the more she begins to wonder if something has happened to Susan. Something bad.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Cozy Mystery, Cozy, Christian, Womens Fiction, Christian Fiction

239 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

DeAnna Julie Dodson has always been an avid reader and a lover of storytelling, whether on the page, the screen or the stage. This, along with her keen interest in history and her Christian faith, shows in her tales of love, forgiveness and triumph over adversity. A fifth-generation Texan, she makes her home north of Dallas with four spoiled cats and, when not writing, spends her free time quilting, cross stitching and watching NHL hockey. Her first books, In Honor Bound, By Love Redeemed and To Grace Surrendered, are a trilogy of medieval romances and have just been redesigned and freshly edited for Kindle. She is also the author of the contemporary mystery, Letters in the Attic, and has recently signed on to write another Annie's Attic Mystery: The Key in the Attic, due out in 2012. Her newest books, yet to be released, are A Dinner of Herbs, a Civil War drama, and a 1930s English mystery, Rules of Murder. Civil as an Orange, her current work in progress, is the sequel to Rules of Murder. You can find out more about DeAnna and her books, including sample chapters, at her website: http://www.deannajuliedodson.com/

Reviews

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exciting and fun.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book in a series published by Guideposts, a religious publisher. I really enjoyed the book. We are introduced to Annie Dawson who is in Maine to clean out her grandmother's house. Maybe she'll move back to Texas when she's done and maybe she'll stay in Maine. She spent most summers of her girlhood at her grandma's house. While cleaning the attic she finds a stack of old letters. She and a girl named Susan had been good friends in her childhood and when they were apart they corresponded prolifically. But she had lost touch with Susan many years ago. Her quest for what happened to Susan draws her into a mystery that turns out to be dangerous. I can't wait to read more of this series!

[Linda Klager · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! It is very interesting to me how each author of each book picks up on the theme and story line of the main character so seamlessly. I think that would be a great challenge being a new author for each book.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Letters in the Attic is a Aunt Annie’s Mysteries by DeAnna Julie Dodson. It is a cute little book and easily read in a few hours. Once more she has taken a small item from an attic and created a mystery to be solved.
It is now October and getting colder in Maine and Annie Dawson is not even close to being able to leave her Gram’s house and go home to Texas. The attic still has a lot of items to be gone through and something done with them. She is sending her daughter some tea towels cross stitched by Gram. She found them while looking for Boots who had gone into the attic and was sleeping in a drawer on them. Along with the tea towels, she found some letters she had received from a lonely girl the years they were 13-15. Annie had met Susan when her Gram noticed Susan alone at the beach while the other girls built a sandcastle. She suggested to Annie that maybe the little girl would like to join them. Annie took the hint and asked Susan to join them and thus a friendship arose between two little girls who were bot on the outside of the beach society. Annie was because she was only a summer visitor and Susan was new to town and very shy. As Annie read the letters, she began wondering what had happened to Susan. Did she make it with her dancing? Why had she not wondered about her before?
Annie sets out to try to discover what happened to Susan and where she was now. As usual, she asks her friends in the Hook and Needle club. Many remembered Susan coming back to town dressed in expensive clothes and wearing jewelry; but after her parents died in a tragic accident, Susan left town and hadn’t been heard of again. So Annie sets out to see if she can find anything about Susan. She goes to the library where Grace helps her negotiate her way on the Internet. She finally discovers that Susan has supposedly drowned after falling off her fiancé’s yacht on the way to her wedding. Annie can’t leave it at that, she has to know what Susan was doing prior to dying. Was she happy? Was she successful? Could she have committed suicide?
In an effort to get closer to Susan’s memory, she makes a trip out to Susan’s old house on Elm Street. It is now owned by Tom Maxwell and his wife Sandy. They are a reclusive family and Tom isn’t very happy to have his nap interrupted. This brings another concern to Annie. Why won’t Tom let her talk to Sandy? Is she being held against her will or abused?
As if this isn’t enough to keep her occupied, she begins receiving anonymous notes telling her to forget Susan and the past and quit asking questions. Who is delivering the notes to her house and when? Who is looking in her windows? Why?
It is quite a mystery that Annie is embroiled in this time. It makes a great book. I love the bookmark she puts in her books too.

[Carla Sokotuk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another good story to the series.

[Joann10 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good read from the Annie's Attic Mystery series.
Annie is looking for a childhood friend and is thrown into a much bigger mystery.

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Annie has stirred up some old memories when she finds letters from a teenage friend in her grandma's attic. Her search leads to danger, but her friends call the police in the nick of time.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Annie Dawson wants to find out what happened to one of her childhood friends but runs into twists and turns she didn't expect. I am so loving this mystery series!

[Vee Bee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Annie is originally from Texas but she is temporarily staying in a little town in Maine after inheriting her grandmother's house.

Annie comes across letters she had exchanged years ago with a teenage friend named Susan. They had lost touch and Annie begins to research what happened to her. It seems that things did not end well for Susan and Annie is determined to find out why.

This is a cosy, feel-good novel about people you wish you knew living in a town you wished you lived in. It has a satisfying ending.

Family corner: nothing objectionable.

[Mooshka · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far I have found all of these books to be relatively predictable, and I did end up guessing what was going on in this book decently early on… but it didn’t give everything away very early and super obviously like some of the others in this series, so I definitely liked that, it felt more like a true mystery!

I enjoy that these books really focuses on different characters so you get to know them and new characters with each book. Overall I enjoyed the pacing of this one a lot and I felt like it was a great cozy mystery with some intense parts thrown in to keep you intrigued!

[M · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is just one book in a series. I started at the beginning of the series and have enjoyed them very much. It is very interesting to me that many authors can contribute to a series and you / they never miss a beat.
This is not a spoiler * these books are considered cosy mysteries, but a few of them have really scared me a bit. Let me end by saying - So far, they have been well worth the read.

[Wen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so good, I couldn't put it down. It was a homey feeling being in among the characters. This is book 4 and I am already dreading reading #30, causing the ending of my friendship with this town and residents. Thank you, DeAnna Julie Dodson.

[Cris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed following Annie as she searched for her childhood friend Susan. I don't really have a childhood friend but I have stayed friends with Kay for almost 60 years. You can't replace someone who knows your history.

[Juanita · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love this series but this one disappointed as I figured out the mystery almost right from the start but I finished it anyway!

[Sandy Carmichael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy, fun mystery.

[A.K. Frailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another enjoyable read in the Annie's Attic series. I like the story development and the relationships between the characters as they unfold...allowing for some shades of personality. Nicely done.

[Rita Caldwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keeps you guessing until the end!! Love it!

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good

[Debby]

This one was a little far fetched for me but still a good read. The story line just didn't flow and would have been better served in a longer book.

[Amy Ritch · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book to read.

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun cozy mystery that poses the question: how much would you risk to find a girlfriend from your youth?

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Starts out a little slow, but then gets good. Enjoyed reading it

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun little mystery.

[Anna Stokkeland]

Another good one

[Irene Marston · Rating 5 out of 5]

these are good mystery with family and friends

[Dawn Fortenberry · Rating 4 out of 5]

i love this series. they are light, easy reading but have enough twists to the 'mysteries' to hold my interest. lots of fun.

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great mystery for a cold, rainy day…

[Marilyn Bell buckner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick easy read. Loved this book.

[Lisa Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this book I love a good mystery. It wasn’t who I thought It was. I like to try to guess which way the book is going, but I was wrong.

[Terri Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very sweet book. It is in the Annie's Attic Mysteries series (2nd book) that are all written by different authors about the same characters. The ladies needlecraft club was hardly seen in this one though the members are all Annie's friends and we see them.

Annie found some letters she received from a girl she met while spending summers with her grandmother in Maine in the house she is living in (her grandma died and left it to the newly widowed Annie who came to Maine from Texas). She wondered what happened to that girl Susan- no, I should say she became unnaturally obsessed about Susan. She begins sleuthing and almost gets killed for her trouble. She also gets stalked by a love sick cop. The real trouble is who Susan had to escape from and how she did it and where she went to when Annie finds some answers and is stupid enough to give enough clues to the killer who wants to take out Susan and Annie too!

These are charming books and it is fun to watch the mysteries get solved. Annie is sweet but sometimes these women annoy the hell out of me which is probably why I don't read chick lit or those "women's fiction" titles that are bursting with emotional goo. I'm having to read a more gritty book now in order to get the charm out of my system but in their way, these are nice books.