A grad student's husband mysteriously disappears. While she helps authorities search, she realizes that one misstep will push her into the clutches of people who want her dead.
Professional Reviews
An Impressive Debut
One phone call begins nine days of confusion and fear for young graduate student Meredith Laughin. The call from her new husband Conrad, driving to one of his medical clinic, is suddenly interrupted by the sounds of a crash that sends Meredith into a panic as she frantically attempts to force the police into finding him. As days pass, things look bleaker when Conrad's car is discovered submerged in a creek with no sign of his body anywhere. Just as terrifying for Meredith is the growing fear that she never really knew Conrad and that he may have been hiding secrets both horrifying and shocking. With little support from her parents, both who are enamored and admiring of Conrad, Meredith comes to lean on the investigating detective, widower Sam Vanderhoven, and Agatha Mundeen, a fellow graduate student in Meredith's psychology course. It is in this class that Meredith beings to see that Conrad may not have been the man she thought he was and instead may be a sociopath with a hidden agenda and a secret life. The couple that their friends labeled "Barbie and Ken" may have been anything but, as Conrad's wife and his fellow doctor at the hospital begin to see that his lies are covering something worse than they could have imagined.
This mystery is as fascinating for its mystery and engaging characters as it is informative about sociopaths and Shakespearean literature. What West displays best is Meredith's progression from being a dependant daughter and wife to becoming a strong and assertive woman. West as well creates very real supportive characters, from Vanderhoven whose feelings for Meredith are based on the losses in his life, to Agatha, a woman who followed her heart to San Antonio. Conrad Laughin himself, who at first is ethereal and seen only in the eyes of others becomes more real and twisted as the reader begins to see his manipulations and goals. For a suspenseful mystery that keeps the reader glued to the page, look no further than Nancy West's Nine Days to Evil.
_Cynthia Chow, Reviewer
An Engaging First Effort
Nancy Glass West is a writer and poet. She has been a guest poet on "Theme and Variations," a show aired by National Public Radio. She is currently writing her next mystery.
Meredith Laughlin is a traditional wife of a doctor, but her stirrings are telling her to go back to graduate school to study English Literature. She adores her husband, who is a magnificent looking man with a lot of charisma who practices gynecology. However, he acts remote at times, and then there was the time he disappeared for two days with no explanation. Now he is missing again, after a troubling phone call which he made from his car phone just before she heard a crash:
"'Have Claire tell her old man to quit working so hard,' Conrad joked. 'Dr. Walker is a little cog in a big old medical wheel. Hey...what are you...Hey! Look Out...Oh, my God!'
Meredith heard brakes screech and gripped the phone, straining to hear over thunder detonating on the roof. 'Conrad! What is it? What's happening? Can you hear me?'"
The scene is set for Agatha Mundeen and Homicide Detective Sam Vanderhoven to enter Meredith's life, as well as the play OTHELLO and a course in abnormal psychology. As each day of Conrad's disappearance drags on, the threesome put together a probable cause for his disappearance, and all these elements serve as signposts in the investigation.
West writes a striking mystery, with deception and sociopaths galore. Detective Sam and Agatha have plenty of juicy history, and act as guides for Meredith's self awakening, even as they hunt for her husband. She intertwines good and evil in a ghostly dance, even as she clearly delineates her characters. The action is nonstop, and West is careful to peel the layers of evil with a practiced eye. The denouement is chilling, and Meredith's discoveries almost lead to her demise. But all is well in the end, and the reader cheers for Meredith's growth and survival. NINE DAYS TO EVIL is a fine effort, and is a well written book with many tentacles. Nancy Glass West is a wise woman with a knack for suspense. NINE DAYS TO EVIL is an engaging first effort.
Shelley Glodowski
Reviewer
Hooked From the First
I found myself hooked early in this mystery with chores put aside so that I could read.
Both plot and characters are skillfully drawn. "Nine Days To Evil" opens with a phone call, a crash, and a disappearance, and moves quickly and suspensefully through the nine days.
At the end, I had the impression of having met new friends that I would get to know much better as the mysteries progress. Gay Young, Austin
In this Silver Sisters Mystery it's trouble at sea when Goldie and Godiva's eighty year old mother and uncle are invied on a relaxing cruise. Magic turns to mayhem for these former vaudeville magicians when a star magician is murdered on board.
