Desperate Paths is a standalone thriller which journeys into
betrayal, racism, abuse, abortion and misguided parental teachings.
Brooklyn’s dad was a shining light in her life. She came to
see him a week ago after her sister, Ginny, let her know that he had fallen and
broken a hip. So why now, a week later, is she sitting in a police cell after
being found wiping a gun and standing over his body?
Eden is a good, clean town guided by the morals and
teachings of religion and Pastors like Gary who want nothing more than to let
loose decent, upstanding teenagers into the world. So, it’s proper that the
community turn on the local abortion clinic and kill a doctor, right? Well, no
one knows exactly who did it, but you don’t hear any complaints.
Darius Woods is a boy who left Eden and made it big in the
world of showbiz. He has now returned to see his father and brought with him a
manuscript for a movie he has written about some of the residents and
happenings in Eden. The names have been changed to protect people, but if this
gets out, no one will be safe from the repercussions. Darius is shot shortly
after arriving back in Eden—was this a case of racism, which is still rife in
this town, or someone willing to do whatever it takes to save their name from
being exposed in the manuscript?
The web of lies is being held together by a thread which is
threatening to snap. If it starts to unravel, who knows what will be exposed.
Eden is not the paradise it claims to be, after all...
This book is really busy, with a lot of storylines and
intermingled timelines and I enjoyed it tremendously. I was literally just
going one more chapter, one more chapter
and I’ll go to sleep! You are introduced to Brooklyn who was adopted as a
baby from the Dominican Republic and never quite accepted at school or by her
older sister. As she starts questioning Ginny’s story about her dad’s accident
and sees how Ginny is relying more and more on alcohol, she begins to realise
that something is not adding up. The author takes you on the journey of her
anguish through what she believes to be true now might not be and jumps back
and forth in time in the story from the day she is arrested to the week prior
when she comes home. This makes filling in the blanks like a treasure hunt
where the reader is only fed tiny nibbles of the clues until Pandora’s Box
opens and secrets start spilling out in a tsunami.
There are so many questions that just as quickly as they are
answered lead to more questions and very often you find yourself liking a
character and are then shown who they really are and land up hating them. It
goes to show how often we make assumptions based on one trusted person’s
opinion when there are a number of people warning us off but we won’t listen. The
secondary characters all played pivotal roles, from a cop who wants to help out
a friend by manipulating the rules of justice to a husband who is so
self-involved that the world constantly lets him down as nothing can meet his
standards.
I really appreciated the level of editing in the book as
there were no mistakes in grammar and punctuation that interrupted the flow of
reading and you were left to just devour each page as it went by. To be picky,
there are one or two scenes that seem a little far-fetched even in the context
of the story, but without them, the bigger picture wouldn’t be what it is, I
guess. You will most certainly find yourself wanting to fly through the book in
order to see where the story ends.
The themes in the story are deep, and if you are a person
who is easily offended by stories involving abuse in the church, racism and
abortion then take this as a warning before you decide to start to read. If you
can read it for the sake of reading a great story, then jump right in; the
highs and lows will have you questioning decisions and actions and sometimes
just outright shaking your head. I highly recommend this book.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the author for the opportunity
to review Desperate Paths.
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