Whispers of the Bayou

The story itself was somewhat entertaining, though the ending felt very rushed, as if she just got tired of writing and wanted to wrap it up quickly. But the worst part was that there were so many grammatical errors, repeated words and the like that it gave the story a "cheaper" feel and took away from the reading experience I so greatly enjoy. I felt as if I was reading a story written by someone on Wattpad. I had to go over and reread some sentences thinking it was my interpretation that was incorrect, when it turned out that it was just a fragmented sentence. Overall, it was interesting but not a "can't put this book down" interesting, more like "I'll catch up while I'm waiting to be seen at the doctors office" interesting.

Whispers of the Bayou by Mindy Starns Clark is full of twists and turns and family secrets. Miranda Miller's life is going according to plan, even if it isn't perfect, when she's suddenly attacked and then gets word that she needs to return to her family's plantation in Louisiana. The caretaker is dying, but he insists that he has something that he can only tell her in person. Miranda takes her daughter and falls into a twisted history of secrets and lies that may cost not only her life, but those she loves as well. For just a few hundred pages, Clark manages to pack an enormous amount of plot into this well-crafted thriller. Secret societies with mysterious secrets, long-long parents and lovers, murder and betrayal, this book has it all, but without sacrificing plausibility or character development. Miranda is a smart, interesting character who learns about faith and trusting others. Every time I turned the page another bomb was dropped; I couldn't put the book down.

The odd twists in this tale became apparent quickly and pulled me into the character's journey of discovery. The resolution of the heroine's personal drama was just as compelling as the outcome of the central mystery. Definitely a multi-layered, intriguing book.

I very much enjoyed this new offering from Mindy Starns Clark. Like her other books, this has a great suspense plot and offers some very interesting twists. The question of who "Cass" was definitely took me by surprise as well as all the family connections. I would say that I don't think the Christian plot is as strong as it could be. I really felt it was more of an addition to already complete story than an integral part of the plot and that disappointed me. The same with the issues with her husband. You could see them working out in Miranda's head, but not having him present for the process really took away from it - as well as having them come to their Christian realizations separately. The plot was great, but I did feel like it all sort of just "fell" together at the end. For the most part, it was believable and worked, but I would have liked to see more discovery over time - like with Miranda's family background. I think this is a well-written book and definitely one that will grip your interest, but I think in Clark's switch from series to stand-alone fiction, she needs to work on spreading out the discovery more as she doesn't have more books to work it in, so needs to start earlier. Or she could just go back to series - I personally love series!