Incidents connected to a woman's traumatic youth threaten to destroy her marriage in Tara C. Allred's suspenseful psychological novel, Unauthored Letters.
This second novel by Allred takes place from 1984 to 2002 and realistically depicts her characters' growth through a variety of emotions, motivations, and behavior. Allred shows excellent insight into the psychological interactions of her characters and . . .[her] use of symbolism adds depth of interest to this well-constructed story.
Skillful placement of descriptive detail enlivens scenes and shows nuances of personality without slowing the story's forward movement.
Unauthored Letters offers an informed and empathetic look at mental illness through a gripping mystery of greed and redemption.
Unauthored Letters is, above all, a love story . . .Even though John Sanders is the protagonist of Unauthored Letters and serves as the lens through which much of the story is seen, the tale that unfolds is just as much Rebecca's; her descent into mental illness, her return to sanity, and her struggle to stay there when confronted with the unthinkable are just as much in the forefront. It is Rebecca who serves as the rallying point for all the other characters, regardless of whether they're friend or foe. It is well-written and author Tara C. Allred does a fantastic job of maintaining a balanced viewpoint, never turning the story into a politicized soapbox agenda. She simply lets the story unfold and leaves it to the reader to decide what they think about what happens. The mystery is simple . . . but finding out the hows and whys are enough to maintain an interest in discovering how it all ends.
Unauthored Letters is a captivating and thoughtful read without being pretentious.
As a bookstore owner, this book caught me by surprise!
Reading it almost felt like a movie to me; there is a ton of dialogue, descriptive scenes, real (flawed) characters and a definite time line, where the characters move from stage to stage in their relationships. Then, boom! Once the letters start to arrive, the plot transforms, the mystery deepens and the story crescendos into a romantic suspense thriller. The author's style is not to withhold information to prohibit decoding the outcome,but rather writes the characters to explore all possible scenarios, which therefore, rules out conceivable possibilities. A chilling unforeseen conclusion for the reader!
It's just a fun fresh book!
