The Stars Shine Bright
Raleigh Harmon,
Book 5
Back of the
book:
After
the FBI suspends her for bending its rules, Special Agent Raleigh Harmon is
looking for a chance to redeem her career and re-start her life.
Sent
undercover to a thoroughbred horse track, Raleigh takes on a double life to
find out who’s fixing the races. But when horses start dying and then her own
life is threatened, Raleigh realizes something bigger—and more sinister—is
ruining Emerald Meadows.
She’s
never felt more alone.
Her
one contact with the FBI is Special Agent Jack Stephanson, a guy who seems to
jump from antagonistic to genuine friend depending on the time of day. And she
can’t turn to her family for support. They’re off-limits while she’s
undercover, and her mother isn’t speaking to her anyway, having been confined
to a mental hospital following a psychotic breakdown. Adding insult to her
isolation, Raleigh’s fiancé wants them to begin their life
together—now—precisely when she’s been ordered not to be herself.
With
just days left before the season ends, Raleigh races to stop the killing and
find out who’s behind the track’s trouble, all the while trying to determine if
Jack is friend or foe, and whether marrying her fiancé will make things
better—or worse.
Raleigh
is walking through the darkest night she’s faced, searching for a place where
the stars shine bright.
About the author:
Email: Sibella@SibellaGiorello.com
Twitter: @SibellaGiorello
Sibella
Giorello grew up in the mountains of Alaska admiring the beauty and nature that
surrounded her. She majored in geology at Mount Holyoke College in
Massachusetts hoping to learn more about the landscape she loved back home.
From there Sibella followed a winding path, much like the motorcycle ride she
took across the country, which led to her true love, journalism.
She
found herself in Seattle writing for a rock-n-roll magazine and earned a
journalism degree from the University of Washington before heading south to the
land of great stories. In Virginia, Sibella became a features writer for the
Richmond Times-Dispatch. It was there she also met her husband and would hear
Jesus whispering her name at a tent revival.
Sibella
started writing about Raleigh Harmon as a way to keep her love of storytelling
alive while staying at home with her young sons. As a journalist and author,
her stories have won state and national awards, including two nominations for
the Pulitzer Prize. The Stones Cry Out,
the first Raleigh Harmon novel, won a Christy award for debut novel in 2008.
Sibella now lives in Washington state with her husband and sons.
My thoughts:
I
read my first Raleigh Harmon novel, The
Stones Cry Out, back in 2008 and have been eagerly anticipating the next
edition each year since. The next in the series was The Rivers Run Dry followed by The
Clouds Roll Away and then The
Mountains Bow Down.
This
year’s release is The Stars Shine Bright.
In it Raleigh finds herself back in Seattle, in trouble with the FBI for
breaking the rules. As an act of penance/punishment she is given an assignment
that is outside the realm of the FBI. She has two weeks to solve a complicated
case or she is basically out of the FBI. To make matters even more complicated
she’s put under the supervision of Jack Stephanson, who could easily be
classified as a frienemy.
Not
only has her working life hit a rough patch, her personal life is a shambles as
well. She had to make a decision for her mother that went against everything
she ever promised her father. Her fiancé is putting unreasonable demands on
her. Her sister is not available and her aunt doesn’t share her faith. All of
this comes together to make her realize what is important in her life.
This
is a wonderful series. I love how the vocabulary makes you stop and think about
what is really being said. I would never classify this as a beach read or a
cozy mystery. Instead it is more in the realm of classics such as Agatha
Christie’s Miss Marple or G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown with a modern twist.
When
asked my opinion on whether this can be read as a stand-alone title my response
is that you really have three choices. The first is of course to read The Stars Shine Bright and pay attention
to the background clues. The second would be to at least read The Stones Cry Out so you will get the
nuances of what has happened to bring Raleigh to where she is now. The third,
and my favorite, is to indulge yourself in the entire series. I’m totally
jealous of those that take this option. I’ve had to wait a year between each
installment, whereas you can devour them all one after the other.
Will
there be another installment in 2013? I don’t know, but I’ll be waiting not so
patiently to find out!
“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.”
