My thoughts
I received an ALC and ARC of this book. It's the second in the Annie Gore books.
Annie is hired to find out what happened to her father. An estranged father. He's a faith healing, snake handling, minister in a small town called Brimstone Hollow in the Appalachians. Right off it seems someone does not want Annie poking around. While most seem friendly there is someone who doesn't want Annie there.
There are several dead bodies and between the cops and Annie it seems maybe they are related somehow. It's her job to figure out if Ezra actually died from snake bites or if maybe someone else did it. And if so why....
The cops work well with Annie and most of the people help as much as possible. But there are some who are set on leaving the dead to rest in peace.
During all that is going on Annie keeps having crazy dreams and doesn't get a lot of sleep. But she does keep trudging on and when the pieces finally start to click she is in danger. She has to fight for not only herself but for another man who is shot trying to help her. Annie is bitten by a timber rattler and if she doesn't get help she could die.
Annie of course solves the case and finds out exactly who did what and why. From murder, drugs, snakes, religion, you will find out what was done and who did it. I can't say I was totally shocked to find out who did one killing. There was a couple of clues that jumped out at me. It did not in any way take away from the story though.
I look forward to more by this author. More of the Annie Gore series. This one was a bit dark and dangerous but Annie did get what she was after....
I have to admit that the audio had parts I didn't like. Emily Pike Stewart did a great job. The one thing I didn't enjoy though was her singing. Not that she sounded bad, just I didn't enjoy that part. She should have just read it. She does have a lovely singing voice, I just don't like when a narrator sings....
Thank you St Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio.
5 stars for the book and 4.75 for the audio...
About
Following her powerful debut in The Witch’s Orchard, private investigator Annie Gore returns in Brimstone Hollow, bringing readers back to the mountains that author Archer Sullivan, a ninth-generation Appalachian, knows so well.
There isn’t much that happens in the Appalachian Mountains that Private Investigator Annie Gore hasn’t seen. Before she was an Air Force Special Investigator, she was born and raised in those rolling hills, and lately Annie's cases have called her away from her Louisville office and closer to the small towns of her youth than she ever anticipated. But when her newest client asks if she’s ever been to a snake-handling church, Annie knows she’s about to enter unknown territory.
Katie May has been estranged from her father—one of Appalachia’s last infamous snake handling preachers—for twenty years. But when Katie finds out he’s been fatally bitten, and a funeral was held within twenty-four hours, she questions whether someone deliberately rushed the process. Despite Annie’s doubts, she takes the case. After all, when she looks at Katie, she sees a version of a girl who needs to understand her father in order to understand herself.
As she navigates the hidden hollers and dangerous secrets of this insular Eastern Kentucky town, Annie works fast, hoping to find the truth in record time for her client—and before too many memories from her own childhood surface. But it soon becomes apparent that someone wants Annie’s investigation to stop—by any means necessary.
There isn’t much that happens in the Appalachian Mountains that Private Investigator Annie Gore hasn’t seen. Before she was an Air Force Special Investigator, she was born and raised in those rolling hills, and lately Annie's cases have called her away from her Louisville office and closer to the small towns of her youth than she ever anticipated. But when her newest client asks if she’s ever been to a snake-handling church, Annie knows she’s about to enter unknown territory.
Katie May has been estranged from her father—one of Appalachia’s last infamous snake handling preachers—for twenty years. But when Katie finds out he’s been fatally bitten, and a funeral was held within twenty-four hours, she questions whether someone deliberately rushed the process. Despite Annie’s doubts, she takes the case. After all, when she looks at Katie, she sees a version of a girl who needs to understand her father in order to understand herself.
As she navigates the hidden hollers and dangerous secrets of this insular Eastern Kentucky town, Annie works fast, hoping to find the truth in record time for her client—and before too many memories from her own childhood surface. But it soon becomes apparent that someone wants Annie’s investigation to stop—by any means necessary.
