From the author of Rust & Stardust comes this heartbreaking story, inspired by true events, of how far one mother must go to protect her daughter.

Dover, Massachusetts, 1969. Ginny Richardson’s heart was torn open when her baby girl, Lucy, born with Down Syndrome, was taken from her. Under pressure from his powerful family, her husband, Ab, sent Lucy away to Willowridge, a special school for the “feeble-minded.” Ab tried to convince Ginny it was for the best. That they should grieve for their daughter as though she were dead. That they should try to move on.

But two years later, when Ginny’s best friend, Marsha, shows her a series of articles exposing Willowridge as a hell-on-earth–its squalid hallways filled with neglected children–she knows she can’t leave her daughter there. With Ginny’s six-year-old son in tow, Ginny and Marsha drive to the school to see Lucy for themselves. What they find sets their course on a heart-racing journey across state lines—turning Ginny into a fugitive.

For the first time, Ginny must test her own strength and face the world head-on as she fights Ab and his domineering father for the right to keep Lucy. Racing from Massachusetts to the beaches of Atlantic City, through the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to a roadside mermaid show in Florida, Keeping Lucy is a searing portrait of just how far a mother’s love can take her.

Warning: have plenty of tissues nearby!!

It’s 1969 and Ginny Richardson has just had an emergency C-section but doesn’t get to hold or see her newborn daughter, Lucy. The doctor explains that the baby has severe disabilities and should be institutionalized, which her father-in-law has already committed the baby to Willowridge School for both the baby’s and family’s sake.

But 2 years later, Ginny’s best friend informs her that the school has been the subject of an exposé that it the residents are treated poorly, is horrifically filthy and that the caretakers are less than desirable. Ginny, at this point, decides to visit the school and her daughter against the controlling and arrogant father-in-law’s decision. What she finds is unbearable. She decides to take Lucy, and with her BFF Marsha, go on the run for a week, hoping that her husband and his father, change their minds that Lucy needs to be part of their family and in their home. Only to find out, her father-in-law’s firm is representing the school.

This story touched me to my core as I have been involved in similar instances and the author nailed it!!!!

I mention similar events. When my sister was born with Cerebral Palsy, 9 1/2 years prior to my birth, my parents were told to institutionalize her as she would not live past 16, have severe disabilities and to just forget about her. As told to me by several relatives, my father cold-cocked the doctor and took my sister home. She will be 73 this year living in assisted living for the past 8 years, with a more active social life than me.

While in High School, we went to a similar school for my psychology course. It was horrific with the same problems as Willowridge in the story. To this day, I can remember Joey, the 5 year old boy with big brown eyes that clung to me. I often wonder what happened to him and thankfully, that “school” also closed.

The narrative, characters, and emotions are raw, straight from the heart and soul. The reader will feel every emotion that Ginny was feeling, love, fear, guilt, betrayal and self doubt!!

KEEPING LUCY will tug at your heartstrings. And as a mother, understand the love a mother has for her child. A compelling and profound read that I highly recommend!

Purchase Links: Amazon 🔗 | Barnes & Noble 🔗 | Goodreads 🔗

Mailbox Monday

Monday:
TEMPER by Layne Fargo ~ HC win from Bookstr via Simon & Schuster plus a tote bag
THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10 by Ruth Ware ~ TPB win from Bookstr via Simon & Schuster
THE RULES OF MAGIC by Alice Hoffman ~ TPB win from Bookstr via Simon & Schuster
Tuesday:
ELEVATOR PITCH by Linwood Barclay ~ HC from Harper Collins
STRANDS OF TRUTH by Colleen Coble ~ TPB from Harper Collins
THE NANNY by Gilly Macmillan ~ HC from Harper Collins
THE LAST WIDOW by Karin Slaughter ~ HC from Harper Collins
THE OTHER MRS. by Mary Kubica ~ eBook from Harlequin via NetGalley

This week’s Fill-Ins:

1. I am a stickler for___________________.
2. By the end of August, I plan to ____________________.
3. _________ is my favorite thing about myself.
4. These days, my biggest priority is _________.

My answers:

1. I am a stickler for organization.

2. By the end of August, I plan to purge and organize my office since I have books everywhere.

3. Being able to listen for my family and friends is my favorite thing about myself.

4. These days, my biggest priority is to get out in the pool before the summer ends.

Synopsis:

When itinerant ranch hand Buck Ellison took a job with Sarah Watkins at her ranch in the Sandhills of Nebraska, he thought he had found the place where he could park his pickup, leave the past behind, and never move again.

On a rainy July night, a dead body at the south end of Sarah’s ranch forces him to become a reluctant detective, digging into the business of cattle breeding for rodeos and digging up events from his past that are linked to the circumstances surrounding the murder of Sam Danielson.

Working with his boss Sarah, her nephew Travis Martin, and the cook Diane Gibbons, Buck unmasks the murderer, but at the cost of learning the reality of past events that he chooses to keep to himself.

Book Details:

Genre: Mystery, Amateur Sleuth
Published by: Down and Out Books
Publication Date: April 27, 2019
Number of Pages: 216
ISBN: 1643960121 (978-1643960128)
Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads | Down & Out Books

Author Bio:

WARREN EMBREE and his wife grew up in the Sandhills of Nebraska. He did both farm work and ranch work during those years, and he still keeps track of what goes on in the hills. After leaving the area, he pursued an academic career in English, Classical Languages, and Divinity. He lectured at a couple of institutions and preached at a few churches, and he now works in Lincoln as a data analyst for the University of Nebraska. His knowledge and love of the unique culture of the Sandhills, his education in languages and literature, and his analytical skills contribute to his story telling. He and his wife currently live in Nebraska and have 3 grown children.

Welcome and thank you for stopping by CMash Reads

Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to answer a few questions.

Reading and Writing:
What inspired you to write this book?

I have been writing fiction off and on for over fifty years but, with a few exceptions, I never took it seriously. Even those exceptions were half-hearted. Then, a number years back, I ran into an old college classmate at the University bookstore, and he wondered if I was still writing. He said he had always enjoyed what I had written in the classes we had taken together and told me I needed to write a novel about the Nebraska Sandhills. I wrote a couple of novels after that, but I wasn’t happy with them. However, a few years ago I finished one I rather liked. After numerous rewrites, I let it sit for a while with the intention of making a final version. Then my older sister, Paula Horii, wanted to read it, liked it, and said I should get it published. It was her dogged persistence that got it finished. So I was inspired to write the book by one individual and motivated to finish by another. Unfortunately, the gentleman passed away last year before he could see results of his “charge” to me.

What was the biggest challenge in writing this book?

Actually, there are two biggest challenges for me with anything I am writing. One is focus and the other is an obsession to find the right word or phrase. With respect to focus, I often go down the rabbit hole when my imagination is ignited by some image or an idea that pops into my head in the process of writing. While writing and thinking about how to motivate Buck to look into his mother’s past, I thought finding an old thimble of hers would be an interesting thing. So I wondered about what metal–gold or silver or steel. Then I wondered about what pattern would be etched into the thimble. Before I knew it, I’d worked on a number of pages and literally days and weeks, and I had to throw it all away and backtrack to get back on track. I enjoy those adventures, but there comes a time to force myself to finish a book. I’ve learned over the years that I need to create an outline of some sort to guide my thinking and keep me focused on the story. Otherwise, as noted, I get lost in my imagination.

With respect to the right word, I’m haunted by Mark Twain’s observation that “the difference between the almost right word and the right word is the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” As an example, as I was writing one scene where I was having Buck consider his options, he crumpled up a beer can and tossed it across the floor. I spent countless hours trying to come up with the “right word” that embraced both the motion and the sound of the can across the floor. All the rest of my writing stopped. I finally came up with it–skittered. But the whole thing never got into the book because it ended up not being able to drive the story. Which dovetails into the challenge of focus.

Give us a glimpse of the research that went into this book.

While I grew up in the Sandhills of Nebraska, Dad was a school superintendent and Mother a teacher, so I didn’t grow up on a ranch. I did work on ranches and worked on our farm on the edge of the Sandhills, but I never worked much directly with livestock. Dad had a small ranch and would buy calves in the spring and feed them out during the summer to sell in the fall, he didn’t breed cattle. Fortunately, my wife did grow up on a ranch, was familiar with the various nuances of the cattle industry, and so was always my first source of knowledge. I also read books and articles about brands, bulls, cattle chutes, DNA, rodeo bulls, leatherworking, red angus, saloons, soapweed, windmills, and the like. And of course, the internet is now a great resource.

That would be a glimpse. But as I mentioned in the previous question, my lack of focus would have be researching things in a wide range of areas, none of which found their way into the novel.

How did you come up with the title?

I had a working titles for the novel throughout the process. One was “Death of a Bullfighter” and another “Recessive Gene.” However, after the book was finished and I needed to have a title, I wanted one that embraced all the layers of the novel as well as focus on a central thread that was woven into the entire story. “The Ornery Gene” seemed to provide such a focus and tied rather nicely into the central story, the characters, and the various scenes.

Your routine in writing? Any idiosyncrasies?

I’m afraid my routine in writing is “fits and starts.” Although I work full time, I do daydream a lot about characters and storylines. I enjoy the process of research immensely and even enjoy rewriting once I have something to edit, but the actual business of writing takes place in a rather haphazard fashion. At one time I did force myself to write 2 to 4 pages a night, but I neither liked the process nor the results. I hope to be a little more dedicated once I retire.

Tell us why we should read your book?

It is simply a well-written novel, with a satisfying story, set in a little known part of the United States, and populated by interesting and compelling characters. The Sandhills of Nebraska is the largest grass-stabilized sand dune region in the Western Hemisphere and sits atop the largest aquifer in North America (the Ogallala estimated at 174,000 sq. mi.–450,000 sq. km.). Its culture is as unique as its geography.

Are you working on your next novel? If so, can you tell us a little bit about it?

I am working on another novel, plus a couple of other books.

My sister wants to know about one of the minor characters in the “The Ornery Gene,” Peggy Williamson, who did not make the final cut of the novel. Buck knew her from the time he worked construction in Gordon, Nebraska and roomed with her boyfriend, John Lambert. She had left Gordon under suspicion of having had a part in the death of a classmate and ended up working in a bar and grill in Tryon, a small town north of where Buck was working at Sarah Watkins ranch. When Lambert turns up dead in Tryon, Buck gets reluctantly involved in finding out why Lambert was killed and why Peggy has vanished. The background to the story is, of course, the Sandhills, but more specifically the county fair, show cattle, 4-H, trucking, and whatever else I might be able to weave into it. I do not know when it will be done or if it will be picked up to be published.

Fun Questions:
Your novel will be a movie. Who would you cast?

Buck Elison: Jeremy Lee Renner
Sarah Watkins: Ellen Tyne Daly
Travis Martin: Kodi Smit-McPhee
Diane : Chloe Bennet
Goff Hansen: Robert Duvall
Harvey : Joshua James Brolin
Tom Anderson: Kurt Russell
Eleanor Anderson: Annette Carol Bening

Favorite leisure activities/hobbies?

During the summer I garden and during the winter I work on indoor projects, but reading is my primary leisure activity.

Favorite foods?

Philly cheese steak sandwiches, but only when I’m in Philly. Sweet corn, shrimp, ice cream sandwiches and, believe or not, spam. Spam was a treat when I was a kid.

Catch Up With Warren Embree On:
warrenembree.com, Goodreads, & Facebook!

Read an excerpt:

Tour Participants:

Visit these other great hosts on this tour for more great reviews, interviews, guest posts, and giveaways!

Enter To Win!:

This is a rafflecopter giveaway hosted by Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours for Warren C. Embree. There will be 2 winners of one (1) Amazon.com Gift Card each. The giveaway begins on August 1, 2019 and runs through September 2, 2019. Void where prohibited.

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Get More Great Reads at Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours

Law student Rachel North will tell you, without hesitation, what she knows to be true. She’s smart, she’s a hard worker, she does the right thing, she’s successfully married to a faithful and devoted husband, a lion of Boston’s defense bar, and her internship with the Boston DA’s office is her ticket to a successful future.

Problem is–she’s wrong.

And in this cat and mouse game–the battle for justice becomes a battle for survival.

The Murder List is a new standalone suspense novel in the tradition of Lisa Scottoline and B. A. Paris from award-winning author and reporter Hank Phillippi Ryan.

Rachel North, the wife of Jack Kirkland, high profile defense attorney, has decided to also study law and when she graduates they plan are becoming partners in his law practice. He is also a member of the Committee for Public Counsel Services or aka The Murder List, where defense attorneys do pro bono cases for indigents that have committed murder. But he isn’t too happy that she will be interning under the Assistant District Attorney, Martha Gardiner. As a prosecutor, Gardiner feels that she lost the biggest case of her career against Jack and that loss cost her total embarrassment and possibly a chance to become the next D.A. However, Rachel feels that this internship will help her down the road and an honor since Ms. Gardiner chose her because of the potential, she saw in Rachel.

The story alternates between the present and 6 years earlier when Rachel worked as the Chief of Staff for Senate President Thomas Rafferty. Also during this time she had jury duty and ironically it was a case where Jack Kirkland was defending a person from The Murder List and Martha Gardiner was the prosecutor, which she won.

After this case, Rachel receives a note from Jack asking her to meet him as he would like to get a grasp on what went wrong, what was the jurors’ opinions and the reason for the loss. She decides to meet him for coffee and while at the coffee shop, she receives a frantic call from Senator Rafferty, who is also a friend of Jack’s, that one of their coworkers has been found murdered and that the police need to talk to her. But this leads to the case that Jack and Martha again go head to head and she loses.

Now 6 years later, while Rachel is interning, Martha Gardiner reopens the case. And then the cat and mouse game begins. Who is manipulating whom? Who really killed Dani? And who is lying about the evidence in this case and who has the most to lose?

This is the first book I read by this author but I have been wanting to for a very long time. And after finishing this book, I am wondering why did I wait so long?

The suspense anxiety is palpable. I kept going back and forth between characters as to who was the biggest conspirator and who was controlling the situation.

This was a white knuckle read at warp speed. A riveting read!! With an ending that was mind-blowing.

Highly, highly recommend! And trust me, I will never put off reading another book by this amazing and esteemed author!

Purchase Links: Amazon 🔗 | Barnes & Noble 🔗 | Goodreads 🔗

Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday

Tuesday:
RAIN WILL COME by Thomas Holgare ~ eBook from Thomas & Mercer via NetGalley
THE NIGHT SHIFT by Sally Rigby ~ eBook from Author
Thursday:
SINS OF THE FATHER by J.A. Jance ~ Bound Galley from Harper Collins
Friday:
THE LOOK-ALIKE by Erica Spindler ~ eBook from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley

This year, one of the Challenges I signed up for is Blog All About It, hosted by The Herd Presents. The guideline is basically a blogging prompt challenge. Each month there’s a different prompt that you can interpret as you’d like then create a blog post around it. The 2019 list of prompts can be seen here on my Challenge Page. I will be posting for this Challenge on the 2nd Saturday of each month.

Once again I am a week late, however, because of it, I was able to get a picture that I will share for this month’s prompt.

Last weekend we were in PA for our youngest granddaughter’s Baptism. Our oldest son drove my husband and me for our road trip. It’s approximately a 6 hour drive from RI so I did read most of the way which was a plus for me. The weather was beautiful and as we traveled across the Tappanzzee Bridge, I was able to get this shot of the new bridge span and sky.

I am an earlier riser waking between 5 am to 5:30 am and love to have my coffee on the deck, playing a few games of Candy Crush and checking Facebook. Hopefully, now that the summer is almost over, I hope I get to continue my morning routine until the cold weather sets in. I took this picture of the sky one morning and thought the colors in the sky were beautiful.

Please don’t mind our fence, the painters are supposed to be here before the end of the month to paint the house and stain the fence. Unfortunately, we will be closing the pool early this year, putting on the winter cover, because of the work that will be done.

My favorite skyline is the sun setting in Aruba. Wed haven’t been in a couple of years so we will hopefully be making plans to revisit. It’s our favorite vacation destination.

At what time of the day is your favorite at looking up at the sky?

1. I love it when __________________________.
2. I know it’s time to _________________ when ________________.
3. Others come to me when they need _________.
4. We should never take _________ for granted.

1. I love it when I’m surrounded by my family.

2. I know it’s time to stop doing what I probably shouldn’t be doing when the pain in my back is intolerable.

3. Others come to me when they need to talk about something that is bothering them, as they know I hold everything in confidence.

4. We should never take each day for granted.