I have some mixed feelings about this mystery. On the one hand, I really enjoyed the story itself and the atmosphere of the novel. It is a classic tale of psychological suspense set in a wonderful small town in the Hudson River Valley. The main character, Sarah Hoving, is a beekeeper and maple syrup maker whose mother abandoned the family under mysterious circumstances when Sarah was just 4 years old. Sarah's mother-in-law, Ruth Hoving, organizes a reenactment of the lives of the town's original settlers for the town's bicentennial celebration. As plans for the celebration progress, mysterious parallel events start occurring, causing Sarah to have flashbacks to long-blocked events in her own life and to fear that she herself will become a victim of this recreation of local history. The storyline is logical and the ending makes sense given the events described.
What I DIDN'T like about this novel was the lack of development of the characters. I felt that, although we were given enough background and description of each of the main players for the book to make sense, the story seemed like it was being acted out by cardboard cutouts. Peter, Sarah's husband, was barely described and we have little idea of how their relationship developed, this despite the fact that their marriage figured prominently into some of the parallels to the past. Sarah's father, a menacing and angry man, was never quite revealed as he should have been. I will give the author credit, though, for creating characters and then making me, the reader, want to know them better. The problem is that there was no way to do that. Although there were some stereotypes, that wasn't the problem. It was the lack of the little details and nuances that flesh out characters and make them seem real that made the book less satisfying than it should have been. For atmosphere and storyline I would recommend this book, but if characters drive your enjoyment of a novel, skip this one.
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