Echoes Among the Stones by Jaime Jo Wright

Mystery abounds in Echoes Among the Stones by Jaime Jo Wright. This book fascinated me from the very beginning until the very last page.

Aggie Dunkirk heads to Mill Creek, Wisconsin to stay with her elderly grandmother, Mumsie, after losing her real estate job. Aggie takes what she thinks will be a mundane job as a secretary for a cemetery working with archaeologist Collin. Instead, she finds a lot of surprises in this small town--unsolved crimes and new crimes, relatives she didn't know she had, and changes to new and old relationships. In this dual timeline story, Imogene struggles to solve the case of who killed her sister, Hazel, in the 1940s.

Echoes Among the Stones kept me guessing all the way through the book. There were a few things I did guess correctly and a few surprises along the way. What I really liked about this book was how the characters reflected how they dealt with grief in their lives. I truly felt for them as they struggled to come to terms with what had happened in their lives and how they struggled to handle the pain and deal with their losses. There was a lot to think about in this complex story. It took me awhile to warm up to Mumsie and Aggie but they both won me over as I saw their strength in this story. I also liked Collin. However, there was one character in the 1940s side that I felt badly for--yet, Wright wrote it in such a way as to be believable. Life doesn't always work out perfectly and we make choices based on our struggles that we maybe wouldn't make at another time. In the back of the book, there are some questions to reflect on for book clubs. Besides being a great individual read, I think Echoes Among the Stones would make a great book club discussion book with some interesting discussions. There is a lot to think about and talk about in this book.

I received a copy of this book from Jaime Jo Wright and Bethany House Publishers. All opinions are my own.