This month my book club read was Out of Nowhere by Sandra Brown. This book is classified as suspense thriller, but it is also a romance.
Trigger warning-the subject matter is a mass shooting.
I appreciated the Author’s Note at the beginning telling her reasons for writing a story about such a sad, but so prevalent in our world subject line. To summarize-Sandra Brown says it isn’t a story about death. It’s a story about survival. In a society where another mass shooting has become a familiar refrain, it is far too easy to tune it out. We as a society must never become inured. She writes that she supposes what motivated her was to honor the casualties and she ranks the survivors among them.
Also of note, there are some graphic love scenes.
Although reviews are mixed on this book (mostly referencing Ms. Brown’s older work and the subject material), I felt this story was a well-written, tense page-turner with a very emotional storyline. While I didn’t take the subject matter lightly, the author did her best to write the story with compassion.
The mass shooting happens at a Texas county fair and centers around children’s book writer, Ellie Portman, and Calder Hudson, an arrogant corporate consultant. It is a relationship which probably would never have happened aside from the tragedy that brought them together and will forever connect them.
At first, the police think that the shooter is among the dead, killed by a self-inflicted gunshot wound. When it is determined that the perpetrator is still at large, the witnesses/survivors are in great danger.
Ellie and Calder share a common, all-consuming goal – justice. But is the unimaginable tragedy too heartbreaking and difficult to sustain their attraction for each other?
I did not know who the killer or their motive was until the author’s reveal.
