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The Scent of Rain and Lightning A Novel Nancy Pickard Books

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The Scent of Rain and Lightning A Novel Nancy Pickard Books

I like midwestern writers and also Canadian writers. This book is a murder mystery, but a good one. This is the first book I have read by Nancy Pickard. Ms Pickard pulls readers into her story. All the characters are interesting, the Linder family is the salt of he earth.

The book begins on a hot summer day
when 26 year old Jody Linder, who is beginning her teaching career as a high school English teacher, hears banging on her door. Her three uncles, who usually would be at work this time of day, are at her door. What can be wrong?
The man, Billy Crosby, who was sent to prision twenty three years ago, is being released. His son, an attorney, is responsible for his release. Billly has been a demon, an ogre, someone from a nightmare to Jody. She can barely remember her parents, her father was found shot to eath in his home, her mother disappeared. Jody always hopes her mother is still alive.

On another hot summer day twenty three years earlier, Laurie Jo Linder is bored with small town Kansas, being a mother, married life. She dropped out of college, married too young, had a baby too young. Laurie Jo felt by marrying the eldest son of the wealthiest family in the area her life would be filled with fun, travel,adventure. Hugh Jay loved his job, loved the land and worked all the time. Hugh Jay's mother worried abut her son's marriage plus was concerned about her three other young adult children. She loved perfect three year old Jody, her only grandchild who was left orphaned but had loving grandparents, uncles and an aunt.

Billy Crosby is sent to prison. The Linder ranch has been vandalized by Billy who is mad at Hugh who has always been good to him, but Billy is a mean, hateful man, a wife beater, a drunk, kills and mutilates animals, and beats and abuses his only son. There is nothing good about this man. Citizens of Rose, Kansas are glad to see him gone though some feel Billy is not the true murderer.

I am interested about reading about Testament Rocks, a spectacular sight in the flat Kansas landscape. The Rocks attract tourists, archaeologists, geologists, palentologists. This unusual rock formation was formed
eons of centuries ago by an inland sea, later a vast river. Testament Rock contains marine fossils and is beautiful at all times of day and night, an almost unearthly sight.

Jody is cautioned to have nothing to do with Billy's son, Collin while the two are growing up. Collin is four years older than Jody. Collin has been badly abused by his father while a child. He was seven when his father was sent to prison. His mother was beaton on a regular basis. Then why, when Collin is grown and a lawyer, does he get his father released from prison.

This book gives readers many questions and answers. It is never boring and the ending is surprising


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The Scent of Rain and Lightning A Novel Nancy Pickard Books Reviews

This family saga/mystery is set in the little town of Rose located in the Kansas plains where in the mid-70s twenty-something Billy Crosby, a part-timer at the huge Linder ranch, had the audacity and bad taste to brutally murder the patriarch Hugh's older son Hugh-Jay and permanently conceal his wife Laurie, leaving behind a parentless three-year old daughter Jody. Or so it seemed. This story begins with the imminent arrival of Billy after some twenty-three years of incarceration, as his thirty-year-old son Collin, now a lawyer, has inconveniently pointed out to authorities that his father's trial was a total sham. The immediate reaction of the Linder clan is to shelter the now twenty-six-year-old Jody, but she demonstrates unexpected independence and spunk in moving past initial assumptions and getting to the bottom of the matter, at some risk to her physical and emotional well-being.

Whether intentional or not, the setting and characters in this book uncannily parallel those of the old TV series Bonanza, where Ben Cartwright headed up the Ponderosa ranch with his three sons Adam, Hoss, and Little Joe. In this case Hugh Linder and his dutiful wife Annabelle personify the same kind of sternness, toughness, uprightness, and kindness. His closely monitored sons, Hugh-Jay, Bobby, and Chase, all share those attributes. Like in Bonanza, women are for the most part a corrupting influence. The Linder boys don't have lasting relationships; the only one, Hugh-Jay, who succumbed to the wiles of a female found his life well compromised before his death. In addition, like the Cartwright's, the Linder's have a large community influence, certainly with law enforcement and legal affairs. The Linder's belief in Billy's guilt was not seriously questioned, though no overt coercion was involved.

The book has a nice pace; the author's story is well-told. As noted, the characters are largely stereotypical, though Jody has possibilities that the author did not fully take advantage of, especially her complex relationship with Collin. The ending is Cartwright-like all the way - in retrospect predictable; the Linder family integrity is not compromised in the least. While the Linder's had some troubles, a far more diligent scrutiny of the assumptions of their goodness and self-righteousness would have undoubtedly produced a harder-hitting realistic story. But that is not the author's intent. Just barely makes four-stars.
Mystery, Romance, Coming of Age, it didn't matter which way the story was going, it started off with people and events that intrigued and kept me reading, and then two/thirds of the way through I couldn't pick up the book again. I have often felt that some writers are going along writing the book they want and then suddenly realized they have to wrap it up. They finish the book in a hurry with an ending that just does not make sense or is unfair to the developments in the rest of the book. We are not talking about red herrings here. When a character has been introduced early as one thing and then seems to be picked out of nowhere to be the villain, it is jolting. Agatha Christie said the sign of a good mystery is that the clues are there all along and fairly presented to the reader. This ending was a weak disappointment after a great early book.
I like midwestern writers and also Canadian writers. This book is a murder mystery, but a good one. This is the first book I have read by Nancy Pickard. Ms Pickard pulls readers into her story. All the characters are interesting, the Linder family is the salt of he earth.

The book begins on a hot summer day
when 26 year old Jody Linder, who is beginning her teaching career as a high school English teacher, hears banging on her door. Her three uncles, who usually would be at work this time of day, are at her door. What can be wrong?
The man, Billy Crosby, who was sent to prision twenty three years ago, is being released. His son, an attorney, is responsible for his release. Billly has been a demon, an ogre, someone from a nightmare to Jody. She can barely remember her parents, her father was found shot to eath in his home, her mother disappeared. Jody always hopes her mother is still alive.

On another hot summer day twenty three years earlier, Laurie Jo Linder is bored with small town Kansas, being a mother, married life. She dropped out of college, married too young, had a baby too young. Laurie Jo felt by marrying the eldest son of the wealthiest family in the area her life would be filled with fun, travel,adventure. Hugh Jay loved his job, loved the land and worked all the time. Hugh Jay's mother worried abut her son's marriage plus was concerned about her three other young adult children. She loved perfect three year old Jody, her only grandchild who was left orphaned but had loving grandparents, uncles and an aunt.

Billy Crosby is sent to prison. The Linder ranch has been vandalized by Billy who is mad at Hugh who has always been good to him, but Billy is a mean, hateful man, a wife beater, a drunk, kills and mutilates animals, and beats and abuses his only son. There is nothing good about this man. Citizens of Rose, Kansas are glad to see him gone though some feel Billy is not the true murderer.

I am interested about reading about Testament Rocks, a spectacular sight in the flat Kansas landscape. The Rocks attract tourists, archaeologists, geologists, palentologists. This unusual rock formation was formed
eons of centuries ago by an inland sea, later a vast river. Testament Rock contains marine fossils and is beautiful at all times of day and night, an almost unearthly sight.

Jody is cautioned to have nothing to do with Billy's son, Collin while the two are growing up. Collin is four years older than Jody. Collin has been badly abused by his father while a child. He was seven when his father was sent to prison. His mother was beaton on a regular basis. Then why, when Collin is grown and a lawyer, does he get his father released from prison.

This book gives readers many questions and answers. It is never boring and the ending is surprising