A woman discovers that her husband has gone back to his
drinking and cheating... while a vicious killer is on the
loose, in this tale set in Florida.
In BROKEN PROMISES Clare and Jim lose their house in Ohio
and move with their young daughter to Florida where they
find work. However Jim is quickly back on the drink he'd
told Clare he'd forsworn, and with this comes reckless
behaviour. It's not enough that he loses his licence for
driving under the influence, he's got fines to pay, he's
staying out nights, is occasionally violent and lies to his
wife, who puts up with this abusive behaviour for no reason
I can see. Yes, Jim's income helps pay the rent, but he
costs far more than he earns and he doesn't keep any job
for long. When Clare loses her job she opens a cleaning
business and soon has many clients, in many ways the total
opposite of her husband. They have nothing in common.
A young woman is murdered and Jim, with his philandering
ways, is implicated, but Clare can't believe the worst
about him and turns to a church where she gets encouraged
to join a support group for families of drinkers. Next
Jim gets a tax rebate and instead of paying bills or saving
decides to start payments on a motorbike. Just when Clare
thinks she's had it with him, and starts saving up to
leave, matters take a turn for even worse.
BROKEN PROMISES is a first adult novel from Donna
Zadunajsky, who has written children's books. I did not
identify with the characters or their situations, but
perhaps it could help some readers to see their own lives
more clearly, just as Clare saw her own situation in a list
of symptoms of codependency. The message of getting help
from a support group, especially when Clare was away from
her own family, was positive for people in many
circumstances. The crime element does not enter the book
for some time, so mainly it is a story of a miserable
marriage. Not the most cheerful of reads, and I hope the
author will add more adventure on her next outing.
Two years after their marriage, Jim Culback wasn't the man
Clare thought he was. How many more broken promises could
she accept? After packing up and moving everything they
owned from Ohio to Naples, Florida, she actually thought
things would get better in their marriage, but as time went
by she couldn't take the beatings, the lies, and the
cheating any longer.
Leaving him, she came across a notebook stuffed under the
sofa cushion. Could her husband be capable of doing what he
wrote? Is Jim responsible for the murders of two women? A
detective from Chicago is put on the case to solve the
murders and has an encounter with Clare. What develops
between them? Can Clare trust another man? Or does Jim have
other plans for Clare?
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy