Jill Hedgecock

Fiction Writer

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Book Review: The Lake House by Kate Morton

Review by Jill Hedgecock

What happened to little Theo? Was the toddler kidnapped? Murdered? This is the major premise of The Lake House by Kate Morton (2016, Atria Books; Reprint edition, paperback, 512 pages $11.88). Theo had disappeared from the Edevane estate in Cornwall, England during their annual Midsummer party in June 1933. The case has remained unsolved for 70 years.


Fast forward to 2003 in London when Sarah, a former policewoman who has been put on leave and returned to Cornwall to stay with her grandfather, stumbles upon the abandoned Edevane property while out running. The derelict house intrigues Sarah because it appears that the former occupants up and left without packing a single possession. When Sarah learns about the tragedy of Theo’s disappearance, her detective skills kick in. She contacts one of Theo’s sisters, Alice. But Theo’s sister wants to bury the past, but through Sarah’s prodding, Alice learns that one of her assumptions about what happened on that fateful evening in 1933 has been wrong.


The story unfolds in pieces between Alice’s childhood and the Edevane family saga in 1933 and Sarah and Alice’s current lives. Red herrings tucked into this novel keep the reader guessing on Theo’s fate. Several nannies, a retired medical doctor, and a handsome young groundskeeper could have played a role in Theo’s disappearance. Then there’s the backstory of Theo’s and Alice’s parents. Eleanor, a fiercely devoted wife and Anthony, a nature lover, war veteran, and loving father.


The Lake House received a a Woman & Home Reader’s Choice Award for Best Historical Thriller (2016) and a Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Historical Fiction (2015). Readers who enjoy a compelling mystery, learning about the effects of World War I on servicemen, and poetic prose will love this book. The mystery of what happened to Theo launches this otherwise quiet book into a page-turning frenzy.
Kate Morton is an award-winning, New York Times bestselling author. Her five novels are published in over 40 countries, in 34 languages, and have all been number one bestsellers around the world. Kate grew up in Queensland and now splits her time between London and Australia. She has degrees in dramatic art and English literature with a focus in nineteenth-century tragedy and contemporary Gothic novels. Morton says of her experiences as a reader and novelist, “I fell deeply in love with books as a child and believe that reading is freedom; that to read is to live a thousand lives in one; that fiction is a magical conversation between two people – you and me – in which our minds meet across time and space.”

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Book Review: Circling the Sun by Paula McClain


Review by Jill Hedgecock

Circling the Sun (2016, Ballantine Press reprint, paperback, $9.99, 400 pages) by Paula McClain has been a New York Times Bestseller and was voted One Of The Best Books of the Year By NPR, Bookpage, and Shelf Awareness for good reason. This historical novel chronicles the life of Beryl Markham, the first woman pilot to cross the Atlantic solo from east to west in 1936.

Set in a remote region of British East Africa (now Kenya), Beryl’s nontraditional upbringing in an exotic land is fodder for a great tale and McClain delivers. The prologue launches with Markham during her daring plane journey across the Atlantic, but then McClain returns to Beryl’s childhood, her miserable marriage as a teen bride, then her accomplishments and the challenges of being a woman and a horse trainer. The subject of her piloting career doesn’t resurface until Chapter 58. While piloting may have been Beryl’s primary life achievement, McClain investigates a deeper subject—what set of circumstances, what upbringing, what fundamental personality was necessary for a woman to have the opportunity to have a career in the 1930s? Was it a harrowing attack by a lion as a child? Being abandoned by her mother who kept her brother, but not her? Was it a permissive father who let her drop out of school at a young age? Or was her drive to push through social norms there at birth?

McClain’s talent shines through the page. It is revealed in her word choices, her ability to paint the African landscape in a reader’s mind and to capture the essence of a person’s personality through dialogue and action. Beryl’s life was far from easy; she loved and lost many times over, but she was a risk taker and McClain depicts her in a way that Beryl Markham’s accomplishment will not soon be forgotten.

Circling the Sun recounts the remarkable life of an unstoppable woman who plowed her way through the barriers of a good-old-boy world in an era when women were expected to be housewives. If you also want to learn more about Beryl’s piloting adventures, follow up by reading Beryl’s own memoir: West with the Night. Mclain is also the author of The Paris Wife.

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Book Review: The One Man


Review by Jill Hedgecock


The One Man (2018, Minotaur Books, paperback, 448 pages, $14.76) by Andrew Gross is the riveting tale of a Jewish Polish immigrant named Nathan Bloom who escapes the ghetto roundup during the cusp of World War II only to take on a dangerous mission. His impossible task for the U.S. requires him to sneak into one of the most notorious of all the Nazi death camps, and to smuggle out a physicist, Alfred Mendl—a man with critical information needed to construct a nuclear bomb. The premise of the book alone promises a high-stakes tale, but Gross masterfully escalates the suspense with each turn of the page. The novel truly has it all, historical details of wartime 1940s, glimpses into the sacrifices made by military and underground heroes, family love and drama, and even a bit of coming-of-age romance.
Gross takes readers across the globe from U.S. military offices in Washington D.C. to a back wood drop point in Germany, to the most compelling of all places, Auschwitz. It is here where the author doesn’t hold back when describing the vile conditions in the Jewish prison camp or the cruelty of the German soldiers keeping watch over the beleaguered men and women they oversee.


It isn’t really surprising that the characters are both believable and have depth. Among the interviews Gross conducted during his research for the novel was his 95-year-old father-in-law who escaped from Warsaw just months before the war. The main character’s (Nathan Bloom’s) likability, his tragic history, as well as his bravery, provide an intriguing lens for the reader. Yet, from Leo, an extraordinary chess player who falls hard for the wrong woman, and becomes Mendl’s protégé, to “Wild” Bill Donovan, head of Bloom’s secret mission, to other ancillary characters such as Bloom’s sister, a talented musician, Gross manages to make their personalities radiate off the page. It is because of these characters that the story stands above the many other novels that recount World War II atrocities. The One Man was originally released in 2016 and received starred reviews in Booklist, Kirkus, and Publishers Weekly.

Andrew Gross is the author of New York Times and international bestsellers including The Blue Zone, Don’t Look Twice, and The Dark Tide. Button Man is another of his compelling historical thrillers. He has also coauthored several #1 bestsellers with James Patterson. His books have been translated into more than 25 languages. He and his wife live in Westchester County, New York. The audio book narrated by Edoardo Ballerini brings a depth to the characters that makes the story shine. Regardless of how it’s consumed, this historical thriller delivers a wild ride with ample twists and turns that will grip readers until the last page.

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Book Review: Stolen Things by R. H. Herron


Stolen Things (2020, Dutton, paperback, 368 pages, $13.97) by R.H. Herron starts with a bang. Imagine going to your job as a 911 dispatcher and receiving a call from your distraught daughter. This is what happens to Laurie Ahmadi, a former cop, who quickly uses her detective skills to track down the location of her drugged teen daughter, Jojo. Laurie is livid when she discovers that Jojo has been assaulted. It seems incomprehensible to Laurie how her daughter would be anywhere near the home of the former pro football player, Kevin Leeds. When she arrives at Leeds’ home, Laurie soon discovers that Jojo’s best friend, Harper, is missing. Jojo has no idea where Harper might be and she can’t remember the events that led her to be inside Leeds’ house. Worse, the police discover a dead body on the scene. Determined to bring the perpetrator who has harmed her daughter to justice at all costs, Laurie isn’t willing to let the police handle the situation and launches her own investigation.


After her husband, Omid, the Police Chief, collapses under pressure, Laurie decides it is up to her alone to find the missing teen girl. As the hours tick by and Harper isn’t found, Laurie becomes reckless. And as she delves into the events of the night she begins to understand that she doesn’t know her daughter as well as she thought. Among other things, Jojo. is involved in an organization called Citizens Against Police Brutality. Jojo, who longs to be a cop herself, and who is desperate to find her friend, starts meddling in the investigation and uncovers things she never knew about Harper. Jojo understands, just like her mother, that the longer Harper remains missing, the less likely that she’ll be found alive.
Beyond being a page turner, Stolen Things tackles a variety of social issues from racism against Arabs, to gay rights, to police brutality and corruption. The fact that it is set in a Northern California town also adds local interest.

Stolen Things is on par with other novels filled with twists and turns like The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and We Were Liars by E. Lockhart.

R. H. Herron has worked as a 911 dispatcher, and it shows in her deft handling of the subject material in Stolen Things. She is an internationally bestselling author of more than two dozen books, including thrillers (under R.H. Herron), mainstream fiction, feminist romance, memoir, and nonfiction about writing. She received her MFA in writing from Mills College in Oakland, and has taught writing extension workshops at both U.C. Berkeley and Stanford. She lives in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand with her partner and way too much yarn. According to Publishers Weekly, Stolen Things is “Riveting… Herron is definitely a writer to watch.” I couldn’t agree more.

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Book Review: “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo”

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Review by Jill Hedgecock

“The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” (Atria Books, reprint, 2018, paperback, 398 pages, $9.99) by Taylor Jenkins Reid is the compelling story of a Boomer-era Hollywood star, Evelyn Hugo, reflecting on her often-scandalous rise to stardom. Hugo’s retrospective story is intertwined with the life of a young journalist’s, who signs on to write Hugo’s biography.

While Hugo’s life is the predominant tale, journalist Monique Grant’s story is also compelling. Grant is in the midst of the fallout from a recent divorce. Suffering from a lack of confidence, Monique tends to let opportunities slide past her. As a result, her career at “Vivant Magazine” is stagnating. But when summoned to 79-year-old Hugo’s Upper East Side apartment on the pretense that Hugo will grant an exclusive interview to Vivant Magazine, Monique is instead offered the opportunity of a lifetime—to write Hugo’s biography.

Hugo’s story begins with a recounting of her childhood growing up with Cuban immigrant parents in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen. She is a teenager when she marries her first husband, Eddie, in the 1950s. Eddie agrees to take her to Hollywood, where Hugo aspires to become a famous actress. Author Taylor Jenkins Reid does a fabulous job of reminding readers of the era that Hugo grows up in—a time when Hollywood movies and producers focused on building careers of talented actors and actresses. Hugo knows how to play the game and soon divorces her first husband to marry a handsome actor who is also a rising star. And so it goes, with an unapologetic Hugo divorcing and marrying men that serve her changing needs. There are twists and turns along the way as Hugo describes her complicated life, and Monique also finds herself changing in unexpected ways as a result.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a New York Times Bestseller, an Amazon Editor’s Pick for Best Literature and Fiction. This is the perfect novel for readers who want to immerse themselves in the golden days of gossip columns, and the days when the lives of Hollywood’s rich and famous could be scripted by Hollywood agents and movie producers. Fans of The Girls in the Picture by Melanie Benjamin and People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry will likely enjoy this novel.
Taylor Jenkins Reid is the author of multiple New York Times Bestselling novels, including Carrie Soto Is Back, Malibu Rising, Daisy Jones and The Six. Other books by Reid include One True Loves, Maybe in Another Life, After I Do, and Forever, Interrupted. Her books have been chosen by Reese’s Book Club, Read with Jenna, Indie Next, Best of Amazon, and Book of the Month. Her novel, Daisy Jones and The Six, is adapted as a limited series on Amazon Prime. She lives in Los Angeles. Follow her on Instagram @tjenkinsreid.

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