Review: Greenebriar’s Garbage by S.M. Drake
Synopsis
Death, discovery, and dilemma set the tone in the first three chapters of this fiction novel set in South Chicago, 1977–1979. The Williams family moves to Chicago due to a job transfer. Seth is a commercial airline pilot with a wife and two sons.
Bribes, greed, jealously, infidelity, and intrigue challenge this Christian family, who find out at closing that their house is in a homeowner’s association with rules which must be followed. The accidental death of a neighbor’s child and the murder of a volunteer board member keep Sally Williams busy after she becomes a board member and then president, by default.
Many homeowners do not know this neighborhood is built over one of many former garbage dumps from Chicago’s trash in the 1950s and ’60s. Follow this family through two years of mishaps, mayhem, and murder as they try to live a normal family life filled with school, sports, and home-ownership problems. Not all neighbors live a life with Christian morals–some of them leading sad and shocking lifestyles which create a challenging environment.
This novel is the first of a series.
Review
This is a nice clean book about a housing community and the lives of several families in the community. To top it off, the community was built on top of a garbage dump that had been closed. It is supposed to be a Christian book, but there aren’t a lot of religious mentions in the book. There are a few that reference bible verses, but nothing too heavy. The characters are very realistic and since the book is set in the 1970’s, the author did a good job of setting the scene for that era. The characters are likeable and while I have never lived in a community with a homeowner’s association, I felt like the author showed what a HOA can be like and the problems that can arise.
There were some interesting twists – long lost loves, murder and blackmail. I was surprised at a few of the twists and how the book ended but I felt like it didn’t really tie everything up, so perhaps that means a follow up book? It does say that this is the first of a series so I guess time will tell!
I give this 3 1/2 paws.
About the Author
Sandee Martin Drake is a retired French and Spanish high school teacher. She received a BA in French from Florida State University and an EdM in education from Weber State University. She has four different stories published in four different books. The latest of these are Heavenly Company: Entertaining Angels Unaware by Cecil Murphy and Twila Beck and Northern Arizona Authors Association Collected Works: Volume 2.
Giveaway
I am giving away the print copy of this book that the author sent me. Open to US residents only
