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A KEVIN R. TIPPLE BOOK REVIEW:

First Murder In Advent: An Elizabeth Pepperhawk / Avivah Rosen Mystery by Sharon Wildwind

Before you read this review, you ought to take a look at my review of her first novel. This is a sequel and while it could be read first, you will get more enjoyment out of the book if you read the other book first. Sharon Wildwind may be out of Lousina these days but as a native she still qualifies for this section and beyond that, writes wonderful books.

FIRST MURDER IN ADVENT: AN ELIZABETH PEPPERHAWK/AVIVAH ROSEN MYSTERY

By Sharon Wildwind

Five Star Publishing

www.gale.com/fivestar/

2006

ISBN # 1-59414-527-X

ARC

As the second novel in the series opens, it is late November, 1972 and Captain Elizabeth Pepperhawk is just days away from being released from the military and her hospital duties at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and back into civilian life. She knows the strong anti war spirit across the country and she knows that readjusting to civilian life is going to be far harder than her adjustment coming back from Vietnam to a United States military base. She also knows that something very bad happened to her good friend Military Police Captain Avivah Rosen during her tour in Vietnam and whatever it was, it was far worse than the so called normal horrors of war and combat. Avivah isn’t right, that much is clear, but what the problem is Pepperhawk does not know and despite all of her training she has no idea how to help her.

A few days later, during the beginnings of what will be a monster snowstorm, former Captain Elizabeth Pepperhawk who is now very much a civilian and very uncomfortable with it, arrives at the Convent of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin located near Crossnore, North Carolina. For Pepperhawk, a lapsed Catholic, a convent is just about the last place she would ever go. For Rosen, who is on emergency medical leave after an incident in New York’s Central Park that resulted in gunfire, the Convent is the last place reporters would ever find her and becomes her sanctuary from the world.

That is until, as the snowstorm worsens and they become cutoff from the outside world, a killer makes the first move which results in a death that nearly destroys Rosen’s last edges of metal stability. With a few nuns still in the Convent as well as an advance group for a military think tank that will soon take over the deteriorating Convent, Pepperhawk and Avivah, both battling their own inner demons, have to pull themselves together enough to identify and stop a killer. With such a large suspect list and meager resources, danger mounts from outside and within as a killer and a raging snowstorm threaten to overwhelm the Convent.

With backdrops of politics and war which clearly resonate strongly today, this novel once again brings Pepperhawk, Rosen, and other characters to life as fully formed and flawed human beings as Author Sharon Wildwind did in “Some Welcome Home.” Louisiana native and now Canadian resident Sharon Wildwind takes the classic stereotypes and shatters them. At the same time, while creating human characters that are all too real, she creates a twisting mystery that moves the reader steadily forward through this heavily atmospheric work. The result is another powerfully moving book that impacts readers on so every level and at its basic core, a very good read.