Search This Blog

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Loved Honor More by Sharon Wildwind



Review: Loved Honor More 

by Sharon Wildwind



Published 2012 by Five Star Publishing/Gale



“Loved Honor More” is the fifth and final book in the Elizabeth Pepperhawk/Avivah Rosen Vietnam Vets mystery series, written by retired army nurse Sharon Wildwind. It takes place in and around Madison County, North Carolina in 1975.



Set immediately following the evacuation of the American embassy in Saigon, the opening chapter rapidly establishes the bewildered emotions felt by Vietnam veterans who survived their tours with deep physical and psychological scars and now believe it was all in vain.



Pepper’s longtime lover, Darcy, who was not supposed to be in Vietnam at all, is missing in the chaos. Complications arise for all the residents of Pepper’s rural homestead. Perils threaten both Pepper’s job as a nurse and Avivah’s as a police detective. Both women face personal demons and summon up reserves of strength when needed.



As the mysteries triggered by Darcy’s disappearance get tangled up with the lives, loves and families at the homestead, the author expertly unveils post-Vietnam social tensions between vets and anti-war protestors, ordinary citizens and the Vietnamese refugees who are settling in large numbers across the southern USA. This is a much a social history snapshot of upheaval in the wake of the war as it is a complex mystery of parentage, honor, and hidden identities.



With each of the previous books the relationships between the two roommates and their circle of friends deepened, yet a new reader starting with this book could get the characters straight pretty quickly and garner enough back story to be going on with. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself seeking out the earlier books. The full story of the friends’ post-Vietnam adjustment is well worth the journey.





Loved Honor More
 by Sharon Wildwind

Published 2012 by Five Star Publishing/Gale