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MWSA Review
In Touch the Dead by E.S. Thornton, Eden Sinclair returns to Fox Dunes Lodge on the Florida coast after leaving her home in Illinois. She's exhausted from struggling with a failing marriage while caring for her terminally ill mother Annie. When Annie dies, Eden leaves the Blue Moon Trailer Park for the rundown beach resort in Florida owned by her late grandfather. Eden reminisces about summers with her cousin Jess, Jess’s twin brother Luke, and their friend Johnny. But now everything is different. Luke was killed in combat in the Middle East, and Jess is missing. Eden is determined to find her cousin and is ambivalent about running into Johnny again. Both she and Jess had a summer love with Johnny and thoughts of Johnny still get Eden’s pulse racing.
In her quest to recreate the last weeks before her cousin’s disappearance, Eden uncovers some unsavory, dangerous miscreants within the circle of family and old friends. All might have a reason to want Jess out of the way. Yet Eden believes that her cousin may have wanted to disappear.
Enter McCabe, Luke’s war-time friend. Having promised Luke to help find his sister, McCabe is in Florida to make good on that promise. He befriends Eden, tells her why he has come to Fox Dunes, and fosters a relationship as he teaches Eden to have the confidence to surf. He assures Eden that he has her back and urges her to be careful playing detective.
Touch the Dead is filled with suspense as Eden follows clue after clue while she struggles to free herself from an unhappy past to find her place in the world. Step by step, Eden unravels a seamy tale of drugs, betrayal, and murder with plenty of red herrings in this intricate, complex mystery. With all the revealing pieces of the puzzle in place, Eden finally feels that she has the courage and confidence to sign divorce papers and rebuild a whole new life.
Review by Nancy Panko (January 2022)
Author's Synopsis
Eden Sinclair returns to the Fox Dunes Lodge on the Florida coast to search for her missing cousin Jess. But finding answers and someone to trust prove as elusive as the shadows beneath the waves. Jess and Eden both loved Johnny, and when he comes to the lodge and takes Eden in his arms, she is forced to confront a painful question: Can she even trust herself to find the truth?
ISBN/ASIN: B096W654KW, 978-1735706801
Book Format(s): Soft cover, ePub/iBook
Review Genre: Fiction—Mystery/Thriller
Number of Pages: 238