Scroll to the bottom of this post for information and link to the Giveaway
About the book (provided by IReadTours)...
In House of Eire, Hillary Broome, a reporter-turned-ghostwriter from Lodi, California, and her detective husband Ed fly to Ireland—Ed for a gang conference in Dublin and Hillary to research her ancestors in Galway. Hillary plans to meet up with her friend Bridget, who’s pushing a greedy developer to include a memorial museum inside his proposed Irish theme park. As Hillary travels through Ireland and learns more about her friend’s crusade, she uncovers secrets and mysterious forces nudging her to fly away home.
And I thought...
The story was good. But it took me till almost the end to get really captivated by it. By the very end I was wanting to read the next installment of this series.
This was a long read. Over half way through I was trudging through read it. And, I continued in order to write this review. I received a complimentary copy of House of Eire from the author and
I Read Tours.
Along with the copy of House of Eire I also received House of Cuts and House of Dads (information about both books is at the end of this post)I was not required to read either of these books. The other books in this series were 'gifted' to me to introduce the series.
I chose not to read the first two books before I read House of Eire. It is possible had I read them I would have been a 'bit' more interested in this book. But honestly I sincerely doubt it.
I enjoyed the depth of research information that June Gillam did in writing this story. The tour through Ireland made me feel like I was really there and had me wanting to go there.
The story about the main character Hillary going to Ireland to research her family history really didn't develop. The sub plot about an American developer planning to build a theme park took over the story.
The mystery developed when Hillary's contact is found murdered after receiving strange voodoo type dolls. Frankly I wasn't really surprised to find out who was behind the murder. I was surprised along with Hillary who was involved (by association) in the scheme.
Overall I can say I thought this was a good book. Not one that I would call great. I am looking forward to reading House of Cuts and House of Dads and any additional installments.
The best part about House of Eire was that it was a clean story. There were a couple discreet bedroom scenes. The mayhem was not graphic at all. I would recommend this book for
any audience.
I received a complimentary copy from IReadTours
This review will post at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and
Good Reads.
Buy the Book: Amazon ~ Barnes and Noble
About the author...
June Gillam teaches literature and writing at a Northern California Community College. She describes this series as psychological suspense novels in which Hillary Broome, reporter and ghostwriter, fends off complex villains of many kinds: a berserk butcher, a demented daughter and a haunted theme park developer.
We all take many kinds of journeys. Some last for just a day and others for a lifetime. My writing journey started out with poems and journals—lots of them. Years and years of them, amounting finally to a creative writing Master’s degree from Sacramento State University in 1983, with a collection of poetry as my culminating project. Some of them were published and even won a few prizes—I still love writing poetry and that moment when the poem “arrives” into my heart and soul and I have to run catch it on paper so it won’t vanish in the midst of everyday practical business. Sometimes I’ve had to pull off the freeway to write it down. My poem “Shameless Hussy Looks Back” was published in the Winter 2015 Peregrine Magazine through the Amherst Artists & Writers Press. https://www.createspace.com/5357673
Back in the summer of 1990, though, it had come as a shock to realize, while I was a student in a teacher’s writing workshop, that I didn’t know how to write a family story. I explored that problem over the years and finally came to understand that ours was not a storytelling family. My poems started to sound to me as if they wanted to become stories, but I had been raised in a sort of goodie-two-shoes home, where conflict was kept hushed up under our rugs. Of course, stories are nothing without conflict, so I began the long and expensive project of teaching myself how to gather what I needed—courage and companions—to learn to write stories that held the tension of conflict. That ended up being the subtitle of my dissertation: Women writing stories containing conflict.
What others are saying...Praise for Hillary Broome Novels
House of Cuts
A maniacal butcher, a journalist/teacher with a shameful secret, and a cigar-toting detective set the stage for this psychological thriller, the first in a series of Hillary Broome novels. Set in California's Central Valley, House of Cuts involves suspense, intrigue, and a burgeoning romance. My favorite things about this novel include the dialogue, the wonderful details, and its sense of place—from the lush walnut orchards of Morada, CA, to PriceCuts, what Gillam terms the "24/7 machine," the kind of superstore familiar to any modern reader. I also enjoyed the fact that eight of the fifty-one chapters are told from killer Melvin's point of view so that I was able to get a first-hand glimpse into his demented, mother-obsessed mind.
~Candace Andrews, author of High Tides: Wading Through Depression—Every Day
House of Dads
One of Gillam's strong virtues as a writer is her ability to enmesh you, the reader, in the many layered action of the story until you become that close and helpless bystander who must live every unspeakable thing out with the characters. Too bad about the hundred things and obligations with their gummy fingers on you. Too bad until the story is finished, for you are not free to return focus to your own life, not yet. When you close the book at last, it is with a sigh of relief and gratitude and satisfaction that YOU don't have to live out such things yourself as you and the characters have experienced together. Oh, but all will linger in your mind. And at the same time, you will already have an eye out for the next Hillary Broome adventure!
~Zoe Keithley, author of The Calling of Mother Adelli
And now for the Giveaway...
Thanks for the review.
ReplyDeleteI think this is one book I'll pass on.