Book review: The Diviner's Tale by Bradford Morrow

***This is a review of an adult murder mystery***
Full disclosure: ARC received, for honest review, from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt via NetGalley. Opinions in this review is my honest thoughts on the book.

My summary:
Cassandra is a single mom in her thirties. She has an unusual gift, she is a diviner; the kind that can track down water sources on your property if there is any. While Cassandra is out on a mission she finds a dead girl, when she is back on the scene of the crime with the police the girl is gone. A monster from Cassandra's past is back to haunt her.


My thoughts:The reader understands at once that Cassandra has a special gift as the story begins in her childhood when she has a premonition of her brothers death. That being said The Diviner's Tale had me confused almost throughout the book and I'm not saying that is a bad thing. I was never really sure if the main character Cassandra was sane or if she suffered of some kind of mental disease. Was the mystery with the girl in the woods real or was it all just in Cassandras head?


Morrow has written some scenes that made me feel cold and scared. I'm sure you know the kind of feeling I'm talking about, the kind of feeling that makes you want to sit with your back against the corner so that no one can sneak up on you from behind while you're reading and give you a really good fright.


The story isn't just a murder mystery, it is also about family. I loved the relationship that Cassandra had with her father and her twin boys. Cassandra's father, Ned, reminded me a lot of my late grandmother who had Alzheimer. It made me think that perhaps the author might have experienced the illness on a personal level, Ned's character felt so real. It was both heart warming and sad.


The cover:
Eerie, which is quite fitting.


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The Diviner's Tale by Bradford Morrow


Published: January 20th 2011
Pages(hardcover): 320
Publisher: Houghtohn Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0547382634 (ISBN13: 9780547382630


This book can be purchased from a number of local retailers and on-line book stores such as Amazon or The Book Depository (I'm not an affiliate of either). The latter store does by the way have free shipping to about 100 countries.