Kaye Berreano juggles her job as a Denver battered women's shelter's counselor, a divorce in progress, and two teenagers. When a fire in the shelter kills one resident, she sets out to find the arsonist.
Farrell, the blue eyed, police arson investigator, believes Kaye knows who set the fire. He even goes so far as to accuse Roger, Kaye's soon to be ex, who had been at the safe house earlier, arguing with Kaye. Farrell's other theory is that Mary Ellen set the fire herself in a suicidal moment.
Kaye knows three things. She's no murderer, and jerk though he is, neither is Roger. And she'd bet her career as a counselor that Mary Ellen wasn't suicidal.
Could it be the roommate who fought with Mary Ellen on the night of the fire? How about Amanda who beat her husband George and is stuck in the safe house by court order? Then there is the fanatical minister who unwillingly brought Mary Ellen to the safe house. Could this be murder in the name of Jesus?
Professional Reviews
Suite 101 Crime_stories
"Christine Duncan boldly takes on a topic few writers want to address: the difficulties of living in a battered women's shelter." Says Catten Ely of Suite 101, "Duncan weaves a great plot and her characters are people, not names."
About.com/mysteries
"Ms. Duncan’s first mystery novel moves
quite quickly; it is well written and I found myself wanting to keep
reading in order to solve the crime. The author wrote a mystery that was difficult for this reader to solve; in fact I had several candidates before discovering the actual culprit. I
recommend this book." Martha Hopkins of About.com's mystery site
Inscriptions Magazine
"Christine Duncan's debut mystery novel, the first in a projected series, is
a fast paced, well-plotted and highly suspenseful read. The strength of the
story is in the astoundingly real personality and voice of the main
character.
...Her
characters were well drawn and soundly three-dimensional and her use of the
battered women's shelter as a background gives the reader the opportunity
to see inside a world that too few of us truly understand."
Jan Kozlowski
Safe Beginnings weaves a good plot, believable dialogue and plausible characters as writer Duncan takes a difficult theme and creates a highly readable story about women and their struggles in a circumstance that only a decade ago was only whispered and received little understanding or interest. Difficulties encountered by those living in a battered woman’s shelter or even the necessity for a shelter has just begun to move away from the level of taboo in our social mores.
