Returning to Taos

I have fond memories of Taos, and the title induced me to buy the book. I expected it to be a pleasant, descriptive story of someone longing for Taos and returning there after many years. Instead, I found myself immersed in a gripping, page turning novel which has all the elements of a best-seller: romance, passion, yearning, mystery, suspense and crime. Nick Klepper

Ten years ago Elena Water left her husband Tom in Taos, New Mexico taking her son Johnny with her. A few years later, Johnny left her to study music and live in Taos under the tutelage of family friends Jack and Maggie Dalton, who run a musical production company. As Johnny is becoming a success, someone shoots and kills him. Elena, who had not spoken to her son in months or seen him in five years, is stunned by her loss. As the cops fail to break the case, Elena arrives in Taos vowing to bring justice to her son's murderer. Tom and Maggie are worried about her mental state as she insists she is talking with Johnny who is giving her some clues to his homicide though her findings are uncannily accurate. Because Johnny refuses to tell her who killed him, she assumes he is protecting someone, perhaps a loved one, but who had the motive to commit homicide? RETURNING TO TAOS is a haunting amateur sleuth tale in which the audience wonders whether Elena is losing her mind though she seems to easily converse with Johnny. Thus, fans will ponder paranormal or psychological; either way the audience gets a deep look inside the grieving mother who finds no closure perhaps because she was somewhat estranged from her son who she cherished, but failed to let him know that when he was alive (underlying message: don't wait - tell your loved ones while they live). Regardless of Elena's state of mind, RETURNING TO TAOS is a powerful mystery with a terrific twist that grips readers from the first "mother-son conversation" inside her head until their last. Harriet Klausner

I've read all of Lois Gilbert's books, and this is my favorite. It doesn't hurt that the book is set in the dramatic and gorgeous Southwest, because that's what we get here: a dramatic plot and gorgeous writing. Ms. Gilbert keeps getting better, and this story really hums. I couldn't see the ending coming, but when it did it was just right. And after all the drama and pyrotechnics are over, there's an understated, delicate Epilogue that makes you doubly glad you read this book.