The Book: Drowning Ruth, by Christina Schwarz
The Story: Amanda is this young nurse and she goes home to help her sister, Mathilda, with her new daughter, Ruth.
A year later, Mathilda is dead and Amanda is raising Ruth.
Hopping from present to past to the night Mathilda died, this story pieces together what happened that night and the events that lead up to and followed it.
What I Thought: If you had a hard time following my synopsis, chances are you’ll have a hard time following the book too. The whole books jumps around willy nilly through about 25 years time really without much warning. Several times I found myself rereading a few paragraphs to remember where we were in time.
Another Oprah book, which is weird for me- but in my defense, mine didn’t have a sticker and it wasn’t until later I realized that it was an Oprah book. I have no idea what criteria she uses to pick books, but to me this was really nothing special.
The main thing that bothered me were the characters. Throughout the book they didn’t grow or change or really do much. They were just these really sad, tragic blah characters on the first page, straight through until the last page. Ruth (the daughter) from time to time showed a spark, but mostly not. They just didn’t do anything for me.
Don’t get me wrong: It wasn’t bad. It really wasn’t. It was just kind of this regular historical fiction mystery type deal.
It was engaging and good mystery and well paced. I was guessing through the whole book what happened the night Mathilda died and although I had gotten close a couple of times, I was actually surprised by the ending. So that’s something.
So there ya go. Depressing as all get out, but overall a good mystery and an easy, engaging read.
Conclusion: Nothing special, but a good, easy mystery if you’re in the mood for that.