Friday, November 1, 2019

In the Cradle Lies - Olivia Newport



The Tree of Life series is set in the small town of Canyon Mines, and centers around Jillian Parisi-Duffy's work as a genealogist.  Besides her steady paycheck work of hunting down next-of-kin for insurance companies, she can't help but be curious about the strangers who wander into her town with mysterious backstories.  The Inn at Hidden Run introduces Jillian to Meri, who has run away from her family and doesn't want to talk about it.  In the Cradle Lies brings Tucker Kintzler to town, with his piles of cash and crazy dream to find the Inn's Hidden ski run namesake.  In both novels, Jillian works with her father, a lawyer skilled in mediation and getting people to open up to him, as well as a cast of small-town characters, to dig out enough information to piece together the history these folks need to find peace with their pasts and a path for their futures.

This is such an interesting theme for a series of novels; I love that the small town people we meet continue to tie them together, but a new puzzle for Jillian to solve makes each novel unique.  If you can suspend the question of whether Jillian should be looking into people's pasts who haven't asked, it's engaging to watch the story come together, utilizing a dual timeline to bring their past and current stories together.  Tucker's family history was darker than I anticipated, and I had trouble reconciling the quick tying up of ends with the slow reveal of the atrocities. 

I give both books in this series 3 stars; I enjoy the idea of the genealogical mysteries, and I will likely continue to read the series, but I don't see myself reading these again.

You can find The Inn at Hidden Run HERE.
You can find In the Cradle Lies HERE.
You can find the author's website HERE.

I received a digital copy of this book, via NetGalley, from the publishers, in exchange for my honest review.


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