What I’m Reading: The Monsters We Make

Before I tell you about today’s post I want to put this here for anyone who reads my blog and was looking for the Civil War Tribute quilt…

THERE IS A COMPLETE KIT LISTED ON EBAY NOW.  HERE is the LINK.   I’ve never looked on eBay before…they even have some of the fabrics listed and a few individual block patterns.

Now to the regular post…

I saw a book cover that caught my attention.  Then I read the description and the book was set in Iowa.  It was a police/mystery story.  I quickly put it on my hold list.  The book is The Monsters We Make by Kali White.  I was lucky and found this book via Hoopla.

I have to say, this book had my attention right away.  The book talks about visiting the Iowa state fair.  I’ve been to the fair several times.  When they reference the concourse, I’ve been there.  When they talked about A&E Dairy products, those are the products I buy.  I remember growing up and wanting my mom to buy me Super Sugar Crisps.  Does anyone else remember that cereal?

The book takes place in 1984.  I graduated from high school that year.  Crystal, one of the main characters in the book was a senior in 1984.  She wanted to write and go to college just as I did.  So many of the things she mentions in the book I could totally relate to.  I loved it!

Beyond the connection to familiar things, I also did really like the story.  The writing was good too.

Here is what Amazon had to say:

“It’s August 1984, and paperboy Christopher Stewart has gone missing.

Hours later, twelve-year-old Sammy Cox hurries home from his own paper route, red-faced and out of breath, hiding a terrible secret.

Crystal, Sammy’s seventeen-year-old sister, is worried by the disappearance but she also sees an opportunity: the Stewart case has echoes of an earlier unsolved disappearance of another boy, one town over. Crystal senses the makings of an award-winning essay, one that could win her a scholarship – and a ticket out of their small Iowa town.

Officer Dale Goodkind can’t believe his bad luck: another town and another paperboy kidnapping. But this time he vows that it won’t go unsolved. As the abductions set in motion an unpredictable chain of violent, devastating events touching each life in unexpected ways, Dale is forced to face his own demons.

Told through interwoven perspectives–and based on the real-life Des Moines Register paperboy kidnappings in the early 1980s–The Monsters We Make deftly explores the effects of one crime exposing another and the secrets people keep hidden from friends, families, and sometimes, even themselves.”

Amazon readers give the book 4.5 stars.  I am going to agree.

Sadly, I checked to see if this author had more books.  NOPE.  I’ll be watching though.  This was a good book.  WAIT!!  I just discovered the author wrote under a different name,  Kali White VanBaale.  She has two more books.  I’m off to see where I can find them at!!  YAHOO!

If you are a Kindle user, the Kindle edition was only $1.99 at the time I wrote this post.  You can find the book in any of the versions HERE.