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Summary
Summary
In a new mystery featuring Texas minister Walker "Bear" Wells, a teen tragedy hits too close to home...
The ominous text message Bear Wells received from his teenage daughter Jo simply said- "Come home." The Texas minister never imagined he'd rush back to find her cradling the dead body of her estranged friend Phoebe. While the death rocks Sugar Land, the apparent suicide seems like an open-and-shut case. But nothing is settled in the Wells household, especially for Jo. The deeper she digs into Phoebe's life, the more she realizes nobody knew her at all.
Bear found it hard enough dealing with Phoebe's skimpy Goth outfits, painful-looking piercings, and the outrageous scandals she brought to his idyllic Sugar Land congregation, but now it's his daughter who's acting out. Jo knows Phoebe caused major problems between her picture-perfect father and stepmom, but she has no idea what's at stake or whose lives are in jeopardy. Bear's painfully aware that his last private investigation resulted in a bullet wound, so when Jo sneaks out alone to confront her primary suspect, he's not only praying that he'll find her in time-he's asking forgiveness for what he may have to do to save her.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Sugar Land, Tex., minister Walker "Bear" Wells plays the role of a man of God much more than that of a detective, in Evans's emotionally charged sequel to 2012's Faithful unto Death. In the first chapter, Bear comes home to find his 15-year-old daughter, Jo, in her bedroom, cradling the body of troubled high school classmate Phoebe Pickersley, an apparent overdose victim. Jo refuses to accept that Phoebe deliberately killed herself with drugs. The bulk of the book traces the depressing arc of Phoebe's life and her desperate search for connection, but nothing matches the intensity of the prologue, in which Phoebe lets herself into the Wells's house shortly before her death, seeking a return to comforting childhood experiences. Bear's common sense and devotion to family make him extremely appealing, but readers looking for structured investigation in their mysteries may feel let down. Agent: Janet Reid, FinePrint Literary Management. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Bear Wells, a Church of Christ minister, and Baby Bear, the family's 180-pound Newfoundland puppy, must cope with teenage daughters. Sugar Land, Texas is a nice community to grow up in unless your divorced mother dies from esophageal cancer and you're forced to move there and live with your dad, his twin sons, and Liz, the stepmother from hell, who suggests suicide as a nice lifestyle change. Teenager Phoebe Pickersley's solution is to dress goth, pierce herself from brow to lip and insinuate herself into the more idyllic Wells household, where she monopolizes 15-year-old Jo Wells' mom's time, manipulates Jo into doing what she wants, flirts with Jo's boyfriend, Alex, and finally so aggravates Jo that she ends the relationship. One day, Jo returns home and finds Phoebe dead in her bedroom. The fact that his daughter is suspected of supplying Phoebe with drugs sends Bear into a tailspin. He insists that Jo couldn't have done this since he knows everything about her. But he doesn't know a thing about that tattoo on her neck, her leaving the house by her bedroom window or her skipping ballet classes to take lessons in Catholicism. While Bear twists slowly in the wind, Liz, on a romantic picnic with her husband, dies from anaphylactic shock from ingesting tuna. Phoebe's alcoholic grandfather sobers up long enough to redeem an insurance policy on his granddaughter. At length, Jo gets down to sleuthing and Bear to taking long walks along the levee with Baby Bear and his secretary's curly tailed pugs as he tries to puzzle out life. As charming and wry as Evans' bright debut (Faithful Unto Death, 2012), filled with reasons to own dogs, love your children and your wife, and have faith.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
After Sugar Land, Texas, preacher Walker Bear Wells' teenage daughter, Jo, texts her father, telling him to come home, Bear and his wife, Annie Laurie, find Jo cradling the body of her former friend Phoebe Pickersley. The girls had a falling out months ago, so Bear has no idea what Phoebe is doing in Jo's room, but the police think Jo may be involved in Phoebe's death. Phoebe was a troubled, unlikable girl, barely tolerated in her stepmother's home, and she wanted revenge against Jo and her family. When Phoebe's death is ruled a suicide, Jo doesn't agree, so she investigates on her own, putting herself in grave danger. Bear enlists the help of local detective James Wanderley and attempts to unravel the mystery. Multiple plot twists, an engaging first-person narration, a cast of genuinely sympathetic characters, and a mystery framed by the details of the life of a minister combine for a satisfying story.--O'Brien, Sue Copyright 2010 Booklist