Dahlia's Gone
Mystery Book Review

Mystery Book Review: Dahlia's Gone

When Sand Williams moved back to her hometown in the Ozarks with her husband Frank, she didn't expect that less than a year later she'd be intricately involved in the shocking murder case of her young neighbor Dahlia.

On that fateful night, Sand was checking in on Dahlia and Timothy at the request of their mother Norah who was vacationing with her husband Frank in Myrtle Beach. When Sand gets to the Everston cabin, she finds Tim sleeping through a dramatic storm and Dahlia lifeless in her bedroom. From this point forward, nobody's life is the same.

Patti Callahan is the female deputy assigned to the case and it seems that she takes it very personally. This may be, in part, due to the fact that she was good friends (of which the nature is questionable) with Sand's deceased father Harry. On top of that, Dahlia's most recent ex-boyfriend is a distant cousin to Patti. She is determined to do her job well, making sure the murderer is caught and balance restored to the town.

Sand struggles with the demons of her own past during this tragic time as the Everston family falls apart. Nobody is safe from blame and the person who seems most and also least likely responsible for Dahlia's death is handling things the strangest of all.

Mystery Book Review: Dahlia's Gone Opinion

It's hard to talk about a mystery without giving away the whole farm but I'll do my best!

Dahlia's Gone is at once a mystery and a saga of family love and how it shapes our every action. The murder of the young Dahlia is really the vehicle through which we enter the world of three very different, yet very connected, women. All three women, Norah the mother, Sand the neighbor and woman who found Dahlia, and Patti the officer who was first at the crime scene, are all dealing with traumatic incidences in their past which make it next to impossible for each to cope with the horror of Dahlia's death. The fact that these women are tied so closely together isn't helped by their dislike and distrust of one another.

The underlying force in the story is the river on which they all live. The plot unfolds much as the river is described - slowly and with purpose, but never quite letting you in on it's secret, always slipping through your fingers when you reach out to grasp it. I found this imagery and symbolism of life on the river to be an absolute mirror of the story.

For a mystery lover this is not the shocking, twist of an ending you are used to experiencing in today's "gory" world. However, the terror of the truth behind these lives will chill you to the core.

Mystery Book Review: Dahlia's Gone Discussion Questions

1. Was Norah ever really in love with Lyman? Or did she fall in love with being in love with a gentle man, so different from her first husband?
2. What was your take on the relationship between Timothy and Dahlia?
3. Why didn't Sand and Frank have children?

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