Narrated by Charles Constant
Your heart starts pounding as soon as the audio begins, as Stanton Youngblood is running through the woods from his killer, then shot in the back and left to die. He manages to scrawl a name in the dirt, however, that identifies his killer as related to his wife, Leigh Wayne Youngblood. Leigh was disowned by her wealthy family over 30 years earlier, when she defied them by marrying Stanton, and there has been no contact since, even though they all live in the same area. When she discovers her husband’s body – and the chilling clue to his murderer – her screams bring her sons and neighbors running.
The genre of Family Sins is romantic suspense, but the emphasis is on the suspense as the law follows the clues and interviews Leigh’s 2 brothers, 2 sisters, uncle and nephew to learn which Wayne family member was the coward who shot him in the back. The Waynes have ruled the small town of Eden, West Virginia, for generations, and recently were involved in a plan to bring a large resort to the area. The family business invested millions in real estate to attract the developers, and in doing so, bought the mortgages for land they wanted, and foreclosed on all the homes in order to move them out of the way. Unfortunately for the Youngbloods, as it turned out, two of the properties belonged to Stanton’s kin, and when he learned the bank was calling in the mortgages, he paid them off, not even knowing who was behind the transactions. Now it is up to the local law enforcement agencies to untwist the tangle of lies and deception surrounding the Waynes and their shady dealings, to learn who among them was a cold-hearted murderer.
The eldest Youngblood, Bowie, is the only one not still living on the mountain when his father was killed. He left 7 years ago, after his girlfriend Talia broke his heart, telling him she didn’t return his love. Talia’s reason for lying to Bowie was her father’s health – she was his sole caretaker, and he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Talia felt it wouldn’t be fair to ask Bowie to stay in Eden with her for the unforeseeable future while she saw to her father’s needs. But once she sees him arriving for his own father’s funeral, she knows she is still in love with him. There was no suspense in this story thread – they were both still carrying a torch for the other, and Bowie was quick to forgive her. Meanwhile, the Wayne family stepped up their efforts to deflect from their situation, and another crime threatens Talia and Bowie.
I was first drawn to Sharon Sala’s romantic suspense with her Rebel Ridge series narrated by Kathe Mazur, when the second book of this series was nominated for an Audie award (I was an Audies judge for the genre that year). I loved it (Lea and Brenda did not!) in spite of the non-stop, over-the-top action which reminded me of another RS author, Suzanne Brockmann. Family Sins did not have quite the same appeal for me – the romance angle was a little too much a footnote to the story, and it was also a little schmaltzy. The suspense angle was completely different, in that the danger was pretty much past once Stanton dies on page 1, in spite of the author introducing one more danger late in the story. In this way, it was more a mystery/whodunit, and the final reveal was a little bit contrived, with a deus ex machina introduced.
Charles Constant tells the story well – he gives it a strong suspense sound, which I would describe as having faster pacing and higher intensity than other contemporary romance. He did a great job at creating separate characters and making it easy to differentiate among all the male characters (5 Youngblood brothers, 4 Wayne males, various law enforcement officers). In fact, I think he went out of his way to find specific character voices for each: Bowie’s was extremely deep; Constable Riordan had a funny accent; the youngest Youngblood, Jesse, was pitched higher and given a slight hesitation for his disability. His female voices were created in a higher register but never overdone or falsetto. There were touching moments where he brought me to tears. Overall, I was entertained but did not enjoy it as much as I did the earlier Rebel Ridge series.
Melinda
Narration: B+
Book Content: B-
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in
Violence Rating: Fighting
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Publisher: Harlequin Audio
Family Sins was provided to AudioGals by Harlequin Audio for a review.
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