Waking Hours by Lis Wiehl with Pete Nelson
MY REVIEW:
“Waking Hours” is one of those page-turners that are difficult to put down. I found myself up until the wee hours because I didn’t want to stop until I reached the end. Then to my surprise, I found that matters were only partially resolved. I have been left hanging high and dry until the sequel is released. Of course I have mixed feelings about that. On one hand I am delighted that there will be another book in this series to enjoy. On the other hand I have to wait for it!
When a gruesome murder is discovered, the townspeople of East Salem are on edge. Dani Harris, a forensic psychiatrist is determined to find the killer. Tommy Gunderson, former football star and PI in training, is equally determined to help Dani in her quest. When evidence places a group of teens at the scene, none of them can remember being there. Not only is the case increasingly confusing but Dani and Tommy witness some other bizarre incidents and Dani is haunted by nightmares that wake her at the same time each night. With conflicting evidence and red herrings that throw them off track, Tommy and Dani wrestle with a sense of impending doom that threatens to derail their investigation. Will they find that elusive piece of evidence and identify the killer before someone else dies?
Wiehl’s easy-to-read writing style and a plot that progressed at a brisk pace pulled me into the story and wouldn’t let go. The budding romance between Tommy and Dani added a bit of relief in the midst of the darkly intense narrative. Not only is “Waking Hours” a gripping murder mystery but the supernatural undertones added a dark atmosphere that served to increase the suspense. Although there are fairly detailed descriptions of the murder victim and a violent encounter or two, “Waking Hours” is free of the offensive language and intimate scenes that are common in books of this type. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to those who enjoy this genre. I would advise against sharing it with your children for obvious reasons.
This book was provided for review by BookSneeze.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
New from Fox News Analyst and New York Times Best-selling author, Liz Wiehl
All towns have secrets.
Some have demons.
Welcome to East Salem. A deceptively sleepy town where ancient supernatural forces are being awakened.
A local high-school girl is found murdered in a park amid horse farms and wealthy homes of northern Westchester County, New York. The shocking manner of her death confounds the town and intrigues forensic psychiatrist Dani Harris, who is determined to unravel the mystery. All the suspects are teenagers who were at a party with the girl—yet none remembers what happened. Could one of them be a vicious killer? Or is something more sinister afoot—something tied to an ancient evil?
But it’s not just her waking hours that challenge Dani. Each night, her eyes open at 2:13 due to troubling dreams. Dreams filled with blood, water, and destruction. Is it a clue—or a supernatural sign?
Across town, former NFL linebacker Tommy Gunderson finds his state-of-the-art security system has been breached by an elderly woman. Mumbling threats in Latin, she attacks him with an uncanny, preternatural strength. Before he has time to process the attack, someone close to him is implicated in the girl’s murder at the park. He agrees to help—and finds himself working with Dani, the only girl who could resist his charms years ago when they were in high school.
A heavy darkness is spreading. Yet a heavenly force is also at work.
It will take astute analysis and forensic skills to solve the crime. But Dani and Tommy suspect there’s more the the mystery than murder, more to their growing friendship than chance . . . and more to the evil they’re facing than a mere human killer.
Read the first chapter of Waking Hours HERE.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Lis Wiehl is one of the nation’s most prominent trial lawyers and highly regarded commentators. Currently, she is the legal analyst and reporter on the Fox News Channel and Bill O’Reilly’s sparring partner in the weekly “Is It Legal?” segment on The O’Reilly Factor. Prior to that she was O’Reilly’s co-host on the nationally syndicated show The Radio Factor. She is also a Professor of Law at New York Law School. Her column “Lis on Law” appears weekly on FoxNews.com.
Prior to joining Fox News Channel in New York City, Wiehl served as a legal analyst and reporter for NBC News and NPR’s All Things Considered. Before that, Wiehl served as a Federal Prosecutor in the United States Attorney’s office.
Wiehl earned her Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School and her Master of Arts in Literature from the University of Queensland.
Wiehl is also the author of The 51% Minority, which won the 2008 award for Books for a Better Life in the motivational category, and Winning Every Time.
She lives with her husband and two children in New York.
Pete Nelson lives with his wife and son in Westchester, New York. He got his MFA from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 1979 and has written both fiction and non-fiction for magazines, including Harpers, Playboy, Esquire, MS, Outside, The Iowa Review, National Wildlife, Glamour, Redbook. He was a columnist for Mademoiselle and a staff writer for LIVE Magazine, covering various live events including horse pulls, music festivals, dog shows, accordion camps and arm wrestling championships. Recently he was a contributing editor and feature writer for Wondertime, a Disney parenting magazine. He’s published twelve young adult novels, including a six-book series about a girl named Sylvia Smith-Smith which earned him an Edgar Award nomination from the Mystery Writers of America. His young adult non-fiction WWII history, Left For Dead (Randomhouse, 2002) about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis won the 2003 Christopher award as was named to the American Library Association’s 2003 top ten list. His other non-fiction titles include Real Man Tells All (Viking, 1988), Marry Like a Man (NAL, l992), That Others May Live (Crown, 2000) and Kidshape (Rutledge Hill, 2004). His novel The Christmas List was published by Rutledge Hill Press in 2004. He wrote, with former army counterintelligence agent Dave DeBatto, a four book series of military thrillers, including CI: Team Red (2005), CI: Dark Target (2006), CI: Mission Liberty (2006) and CI: Homeland Threat (2007) published by Time-Warner. A More Unbending Battle; The Harlem Hellfighters’ Struggle for Democracy in WWI and Equality at Home, was published in 2009 by Basic Civitas books. His novel, I Thought You Were Dead, will be published by Algonquin in 2010. He also has two CDs out on the Signature Sounds label, the first entitled The Restless Boys Club (1996), the second called Days Like Horses (2000).
