Luisa Buehler

Red herrings galore, continuous changes to keep a reader on their toes, and strangly bizarre incidents kept me hooked. Buehler's style of writing is worthy and, even if it does border of melodrama at times and with certain dialogue phrases, it strays from becoming overly poetic/cloying. Pacing was muffled at first, but then sped to an almost apocalyptic speed that forces the reader to pay attention, else they lose their way. Enriched with a comforting, warm feeling toward the end, The Lighthouse Keeper ultimately succeeds in achieving its goal as being an entertaining read.… (mehr)

In the 7th and final installment in the Grace Marsden mystery series, Grace finds herself at a reenactment camp when a stray bullet nearly misses her. Grace has a habit of stumbling into cold cases so a visit to a nearby cemetery finds a man in a Union officer’s uniform hovering near his own grave. He feels he was wrongly accused of stealing gold during the Civil War and points Grace in the direction of a box buried just under the surface near his gravesite. Meanwhile, Harry, Grace’s husband, has a haunting of his own as enemies from his past British Intelligence days track him down and vow vengeance on him and anyone close to him.

THE REENACTOR is chockfull of Civil War history and interesting tidbits about reenactors. What’s most interesting is the underground railroad and the history of the quilts that were made during that era to direct slaves to a safe haven.

An intriguing twist in the future of Harry and Grace leaves readers wondering if there might be another chapter in the form of a short story to satisfy fans who have a “but do they ever”…? question. The outcome of Ric, another main character, did not quite have a definite final outcome for those of us who like things spelled out in black and white.

There will always be a divided camp of Harry and Ric fans arguing over whom Grace should have sailed off into the sunset with, but as with most such triangles, you will never please everyone. As the author says in her Acknowledgements, “Good night, Gracie.”… (mehr)