Blood Oranges by J.M. Cannon

A beautifully written suspense thriller that got me glued to the book despite my severe allergies that blurred my vision. As always, the book authored by Cannon, always ended with  surprise revelation

Introduction:(From Amazon)

Catherine Cross is the most successful female televangelist in the country. Her congregation in the western suburbs of Orlando is one of the wealthiest. She's comfortable and charismatic in front of a camera, but when her youngest daughter goes missing not even she is ready for the media firestorm that follows.

Emily, the oldest child and protagonist of the story, tries to find her sister but instead meets a strange series of deaths and disappearnces on an orange orchard outside of town. 

Background:

Emily was born when her mother was 20 but since her mother became busy building her religious empire, she gave birth to Emily's other siblings at a later date. Emily is 10 years older than the eldest of the second batch of children : 2 boys and 2 girls followed.

Emily's marraige ended so she moved back to the family home but stayed at the pool house. We later find out her ex-husband will be the detective in charge of the first murder discovered as well as assigned to find her missing sister.

Another body and more disappearnces occur and leads you to a roller coaster ride that ended with a bang at the end.

The Girl in the Dark by J.M. Cannon

I love this book. The format is excellent wherein chapters were utilized. And just like that European tv seies that I watched called" Showendam", each chapter ended with a cliff hanger making me want to go immediately to the next one. Absolutely thrilling!

Synopsis: 

On a cold evening in November, Zoey Knight gets a frantic call from her sister. Their childhood home in remote Maine has burned to the ground.Two bodies have been discovered in the basement.

When the FBI suddenly takes over the case, it's clear something more sinister than a random double homicide has taken place.

There are several significant dates:

1994-It was the year the Knights (Zoey and her sister's family) moved to a remote town in Maine, Black Castle. Just when they moved, a fire started.

2000- This is where Zoey meets the infamous leader of the "cultic group" which the town folks called "The Family". This agitated her mom who argued with the guy for talking to Zoey. After the fracas , she made sure the whole town knew about their presence.

2002- Not much here but it will slowly build up to the following years.

2004- Rachel Berquist, the sister of Michael (Zoey's ex) and Evie's best friend goes missing. Evie is Zoey's older sister. This is the time the "family" misteriously disappear and the time Claire (Zoey and Evie's mom) starts blackmailing Michael in exchange for sex.

A little observation. Zoey left Black Castle 8 years ago and got married. She has a daughter. Either she fell out of love with her husband or she suspected he was cheating, but she quickly left husband and daughter in the middle of the night to drive over too Evie's place when she called. 

When she was there, she made every excuse to get together with Michael (her ex) even in the middle of the night to solve the mystery of the bodies found and what really happened to Rachel, his sister.

Though still in love with her, he still resisted commiting adultery with her bcause of a horrible secret he has kept for years and because she is married. Fortunately, she did not pursue rekindling her sexual affair with him.

She never called her husband or daughter, so the husband initiated getting in contact with her. She felt guilty for not calling her daughter but made no mention of missing her husband. The husband and the daughter eventually drove over there just to see her. Still she was adamant on finding Michael, her mom and Evie when they disappeared.

The last chapters explains everything and Michael eventually dies after saving her life. When she found out he died she was so aggrieved and found solace with her daughter. I guess she will have to consider loving her husband again now that Michael is gone.She still is so shocked of what she has found out and may take awhile for her to recover.