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    Close to the Broken Hearted
    Close to the Broken Hearted
    Close to the Broken Hearted
    Ebook451 pages4 hours

    Close to the Broken Hearted

    By Michael Hiebert

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    “There’s something mesmerizing about Hiebert’s storytelling voice.” --The New York Times Book Review

    In this riveting novel from the author of the acclaimed Dream with Little Angels, a killer’s release is the catalyst for shocking revelations in a small Southern town…
     
    At twenty-two, Sylvie Carson has known a lifetime’s worth of trouble. When she was a child, her baby brother was shot to death by a man named Preacher Eli. Orphaned by her teens, Sylvie is now raising her own baby with no partner in sight. That’s why Leah Teal, Alvin, Alabama’s only detective, tries to stay patient when Sylvie calls the station day and night, always with some new false alarm. But now Preacher Eli is out of prison, moving back to town—and Sylvie’s panic is mounting.
     
    As far as the law goes, the old man has paid his dues—though Leah’s twelve-year-old son, Abe, strongly disagrees. Between that and his relentless curiosity about the daddy he hardly knew, Abe’s imagination is running in all directions lately. While Leah struggles with how much to tell him, she’s also concerned about Sylvie. Something tells her the girl might be a target after all. It’s a hunch that will be tested soon enough, as secrets and lies from both sides collide…
     
     “Hiebert does a masterful job of building suspense.” —Publishers Weekly
     
    “A very good, sometimes emotional, mystery that will stay with you long after it’s over.” —Suspense Magazine
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPinnacle Books
    Release dateDec 27, 2016
    ISBN9780786039739
    Close to the Broken Hearted
    Author

    Michael Hiebert

    I am an award-winning author of novels and short stories. My latest book, Dream With Little Angels is being published by Kensington Books and should be on shelves in the spring of 2013. I live in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada, where it’s cold and wet in the winter and warm (and sometimes also wet) in the summer. We have cougars, and bears and deer. I have a dog named Chloe, three kids, and enough books that it became no fun to move quite a long time ago. I like to write surprising stories that cross genres, and are often mysterious. I’ve been writing most of my life, but I’ve really spent the last decade perfecting my craft. My writing seems to be a blend of mystery and the fantastic. I like to find the redemption in the horrific; the surviving heart still left beating among all the sorrow; the beautiful lost somewhere in all the ugliness of the world. I won the prestigious Surrey International Writer’s Conference Storyteller’s Award twice in a row. This award is sponsored each year by New York Times bestseller Diana Gabaldon and bestseller Jack Whyte. Check out my website and blog at http://www.michaelhiebert.com and while you're there, sign up for my newsletter. Members receive terrific deals on books and other goodies!

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    Reviews for Close to the Broken Hearted

    4.5/5

    11 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      The books opens up with a bang. Literally. A little boy is killed right in front of his parents and young sister, Sylvie. This traumatic event shapes Sylvie's life, along with the murder of her mother and death of her father. Leah Teal, the first female detective in the small town is Sylvie's only ally. Leah is also suffering from the death of her husband and raising two children on her own. Everyone thinks Sylvie is crazy, she calls the police station nonstop. Then the Preacher who killed Sylvie's brother is released from prison and it looks like he's behind all the craziness happening to Sylvie. Leah's son Abe and his friend Dewey add comedic relief to the book and they seem to come with some crazy schemes. I enjoyed the camouflaging with fir tree branches part. Painting his sister's toes was another great moment. I never guessed the ending and was glad that Sylvie finally named her baby. I really liked reading about the characters and learning about their back story. There are many plots and stories in the book and a mystery that needed to be solved. I can't wait to rad more about Alvin, Alabama.
    • 4/5
      Psalm 34:18The Lord is close to the broken heartedAnd saves those who are crushed in spirit Leah Teal is the only police detective in the tiny town of Alvin, Alabama and the only one willing to take the constant calls from Sylvie Carson seriously. Sylvie, who lives just outside of town with her new baby has lived a life of constant sorrow: first the killing of her baby brother when she was five by preacher Eli Brown who was aiming for her father over a land dispute; then the murder of her mother by a follower of Brown; then by her father’s suicide; and finally the abuse by and then desertion of her baby’s father. Now Eli has been released and just as he returns home, strange and sinister things are happening at Sylvie’s place. Leah may believe her but Eli denies it all and since, according to the law, he has paid his dues, there is nothing she can do without proof and whoever is terrorizing Sylvie, if it’s not all in her head, never leaves any traces. Beside Leah’s story, which is told in the third person is that of her son, 12-year-old Abe who speaks in the first person. Abe was only two when his father died and Leah’s refusal to talk of it leaves Abe feeling like part of his life and his past is missing. When he learns about relatives he didn’t know he had, he is thrilled but Leah is less so. When Leah takes Abe with her to call on the preacher, he is convinced that Brown is evil even as Leah begins to have doubts about the preacher’s guilt. Abe and his best friend are determined that, if Leah can’t prove Eli’s guilt, they will do it for her. Close to the Brokenhearted by author Michael Hiebert is the second in a series set in Alabama in the 1980s. It is both a compelling mystery and a coming-of-age tale. It provides a taut tight mystery but the antics of Abe and his inventor friend, Dewey provide a nice touch of humour to the novel. Perhaps not surprising, religion plays a big role in the story both good and bad. It is about the solace that religion can give to those broken in spirit but it also shows how destructive religion can be when accompanied by pride. Fortunately, it never becomes over-preachy and, to be honest, despite my own lack of religion, I get the healing power of gospel music. Mainly though, this is a story about the power of forgiveness and second chances, the ability of the human spirit to survive and heal, about the need to grieve and the importance of memory and family.
    • 4/5
      Working mothers sometimes have to take their kids to work with them, which can become problematic when a mother works as a police detective. When I reviewed the first book in Michael Hiebert's Alvin, Alabama series of mysteries, "Dream with Little Angels" (April 11, 2014), my objection was that Detective Leah Teal took her 11-year-old son Abe to too many crime scenes and interrogations to be believable. Even a bad mother would be unlikely to do this, and Leah is portrayed as a good mother.Abe is 12 years old in the second novel in the series, and while he remains a main character and the narrator of much of the story, both Hiebert and Leah show better sense in keeping the boy, who thinks he's a better detective than his mother, away from most of the action. However, both Abe and his older sister, Caroline. happen to be in the car when their mother gets the call that sends her rushing to the novel's violent climax.The story centers on Sylvie Carson, a young mother who has been emotionally disturbed since Preacher Eli accidentally killed her younger brother years before. Now the preacher has been released from prison, and Sylvie claims he is harassing her. Strange things are happening at her home, open doors and odd noises, and Sylvie keeps calling the police department to complain about Preacher Eli. Only Leah believes these complaints are not just in Sylvie's imagination.Meanwhile, Abe and his friend Dewey provide comic relief, playing with their wooden swords and spying on Preacher Eli while disguised as trees. A subplot involves discoveries about Abe's father, who died when the boy was very young. Hiebert gives us a compelling story and lots of small town Alabama atmosphere. What's hard to believe this time is not children being taken to crime scenes but the fact that the author hails not from Alabama but from Canada.

    Book preview

    Close to the Broken Hearted - Michael Hiebert

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