A Matter of Trust Book Review

I had read another book by Lis Wiehl, so I knew she writes a strong crime mystery novel with surprising twists and turns.  Mia Quinn is a prosecutor for a county District Attorney’s office, recently returning to that job after the death of her husband in a car crash.  She is on the phone with her best friend, another prosecuting attorney in the office, when she hears her friend get shot and killed.  The book is spent with her and a police officer investigating this murder and a similar one of another prosecuting attorney that happened four years ago.  At the same time, they are investigating a suicidal death of a young boy, the age of Mia’s own son, who was bullied and harassed at school and on Facebook leading to his death. 

Mia’s father has recently found Christ as his Savior and shows Mia how Christ can transform an absent, abandoning father, into a loving, kind, and helpful dad.  Mia needs all the support she can get because of the loss of her husband and her friend, but also because she finds out their financial chaos her husband had hid from her.  Going back to work leaves her teen son alone too much of the time, and exposed to the peer pressure of students who will bully him if he doesn’t go along with their plans.  The changes and losses in her four-year-old daughter’s life cause her to have night terrors.  How can Mia be fully engaged at work, investigate the murders, be a good mom to her kids, and keep anyone else from being killed?

I enjoyed this book because I love mysteries that are hard to figure out.  This book deals with current issues, like bullying at school, dangers of social media, keeping our kids safe, and pressures of finances in our day.  It is an intense book that I would not recommend for young readers, but is definitely appropriate for adults who enjoy mysteries.

I received my complimentary e-copy from Book Sneeze in exchange for my honest review of this book. 

3rd Annual Johnstown Historical Society Tea at Two

 Emily and I spent Saturday morning making lots of cucumber sandwiches in preparation for the Tea at Two.  We also made almond cakes.  Other people made chicken salad, chocolate covered strawberries, glazed nuts, cream cheese mints, scones, Death by Chocolate mini cupcakes, and lemon poppy seed cakes.

 Emily and I dressed up before the Tea.  She wore a clip-on "fascinator" on her hat which she won two years ago at the Tea.  My hair clip was made by our niece for Emily's birthday gift this year.

 Cynthia Webb was the speaker for the Tea, as she was two years ago.  Since Jason was the piano entertainment for the Tea, she wanted him to be dressed up for the occasion.  It made it more fun for Jason to wear the fancy clothes and the top hat.

 

Cynthia and Jason after she got him all fixed up!

 This is Cynthia in the hat she wore for most of the Tea.  She is a milliner, a farmer's wife, and a Christian motivational speaker.  But she also gives talks and demonstrations about hat styles and hat making, which is what she did this time.

 Of course, I wanted a picture with my handsome son!

 Emily was a tea server for the occasion.

 

How Jason looked while he was playing for about 1.5 hours.  He played mostly hymns and Christian music, plus his own original compositions.  It was wonderful background "noise" and everyone seemed to love hearing him play.

 

This is looking from the Senior Center kitchen out into the Tea before all the guests had arrived.  There was a contingency of 21 Red Hatters who filled three tables.

 Emily was a careful tea server.  When a teapot was empty, she went back for a different teapot.  I think we had at least eight teapots with four in use at a time.  We had a helper in the kitchen making more tea from tea essence all the time.  This picture caught Emily holding her own teapot that she bought at a garage sale last year.

 This shows how the tables were set.  Old fashioned handkerchiefs are the napkins.  The cups and saucers are varied and all beautiful.  Decorated hats were the centerpieces.

 We had serving tables with all the food on them, so that lines could be served from both directions at once.  Lots of the guests wore hats, which added to the fun of the afternoon.

 While Cynthia spoke, after the teatime, she had three ladies who were modeling clothing and hats from late 1800s and early 1900s.  The models were good sports and made it a fun afternoon.

Tea at Two is one of our two main fundraiser events in the year for the Historical Society.  We are glad to have this one behind us.  It was a lot of work, but everybody had a good time.