C.F. Dunn
The Secret
of the Journal, Book 1
Fiction/Suspense
Back of
the book:
Emma, a young and self-contained professor of history, leaves
Cambridge for a post in an exclusive university in the USA, intent on finding a
long-overlooked seventeenth-century journal. Bound within its pages are secrets
that threaten to bring Emma into conflict with the present; but can she
discover the truth—and will she believe it?
About the
author:
Twitter: @clairefdunn
Always on the move with my Air Force family, I spent a peripatetic but happy childhood in my book-lined imagination fuelled by tales from the past.
I ached to tell stories but struggled to read and write, and it
wasn’t until the age of nine when living in Norway that I broke through the
barriers, (thank you Ladybird books).
And, when I did, I spent every spare minute reading everything and
anything I could. I loved CS Lewis, Arthur Ransome, the Bronte sisters, and
Tolkien.
Without the distraction of television, and beguiled by the wide,
wild landscapes that surrounded me, I lived in a demi-world between the real
world and that conjured in my head. Hooked on history and literature, I
returned to England, and a bleak period of secondary schooling. New-found faith
provided a context for my life, followed shortly after by a diagnosis of
dyslexia, and the previous years of struggle suddenly made sense.
University gave me the opportunity to indulge my love of history
and it was where I met my future husband. Together with our friends, a couple
of Siamese cats, and a ghost, we shared a cottage in the grounds of a castle
between the confluences of two rivers, and dreamed of setting up a school.
Now I divide my time between running our specialist dyslexia and
autism school in the South-East, and writing in the South-West, best described
as living between the here and now and the never-never. They say God works in
mysterious ways. He also has a sense of humor.
My
thoughts:
From the opening of the book there is a tension that emanates
through the entire story. Some of the mysteriousness is apparent. Professor
Staahl had a creep factor that was off the charts. He didn’t just scare the
living daylights out of Emma…he scared me! But then there were other elements
that remained just out of reach. By the end of the book there were still a
couple of areas that I just couldn’t quite put my finger on. What secrets does
that journal contain? And who is Dr. Lynes really?
When you come to the end of this book you are going to be saying,
wait a minute…what about…? Guess what, it gets worse! The author has included chapter
one of Death Be Not Proud which is book
two in the series. Brilliant marketing idea but total torture for the reader!
Her byline really does say it all…Romantic thrillers ~ with a
twist. I enjoyed all the twists involved and look forward to delving into the
next installment. This was a great first novel.
I must say that it wasn’t all deep dark mystery. There were
lighter points that did make me smile, however I’m not sure the author intended
them to be that way. Claire Dunn is from England so she used words like boot to
describe the trunk of a car and jumper in place of sweater. When I think of
jumper it is a sleeveless dress worn over a blouse. Needless to say the thought
of the dashingly handsome Dr. Lynes wearing a jumper was humorous to me.
“Disclosure
of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or
Services mentioned above
for free in the hope that I would mention it
on my blog. Regardless,
I only recommend products or services I use personally
and believe will be good
for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance
With the Federal Trade
Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides concerning the
Use of Endorsements and
Testimonials in Advertising.”
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