Will Light is a broken man. Just a few months ago, he and
his wife Sophie along with their beautiful 15-year-old
daughter, Lucy, had a wonderful life. Will is a popular and
successful artist with Sophia in her own successful career.
Everything is perfect. Until the day that Lucy does not come
home from school. She is eventually found brutally murdered.
Sophia goes through the stages of grief and finally comes
out on the other side due to the help of a good friend. Will
simply cannot move forward. He has no faith in anything any
longer. He is focused only on finding the person who
murdered his daughter and exacting justice on that person.
One day, a priest comes to his door and tells him that the
Bishop would like for Will to accept a commission of
painting each of the saints. Will has no interest in
religion of any kind thus refusing the offer and sends the
priest on his way. Later, he changes his mind and decides to
use local townspeople as models for the saints. The more
interaction that he has with his chosen models the more he
feels that he has possibly discovered his daughter's killer.
When it comes down to it, is Will going to be able to go
through with his plan for revenge or decide on forgiveness?
THE HALO EFFECT is a rather different sort of book. Yes, the
plot forms around Lucy's murder and it does have a certain
amount of suspense. On the other hand, THE HALO EFFECT
contains elements of grief and its' recovery, faith,
forgiveness, and closure. The character of Will Light shows
one way that parents who have had children cruelly ripped
from their lives in such a brutal and unnecessary way
reacts. Sophia shows recovery through her faith and finally
realizes that Will has to come to terms with his grief on
his own.
The opening of THE HALO EFFECT pulled me into the story of
the lives of these people. It did start to slow down a bit
later in the book but, eventually, the plot picked up and
began to speed along once more. I began to feel as if I knew
these people and felt what they did. Just like Will, many
people in the real world do feel the way that he does when
his only child is murdered. It is always terrible to lose a
child but to have someone make the decision to take that
child, closure can be very difficult. Forgiveness seems
impossible.
THE HALO EFFECT will arouse many emotions in you as you go
through Will's terrible days and finally try to come out on
the other side of his mind-numbing grief at the loss of
Lucy. You will feel sad, anger, depression, and even
irritated that Will does not seem to be even trying to move
forward. Prepare yourself for one of the most important
books of the year as you pick it up and turn to the first page.
Anne D. Leclaire understands people and she writes from the
heart in THE HALO EFFECT. You will be absorbed into Will
Light's life, breakdown, recovery, and answers. These are
the things that all great books contain and Ms. LeClaire has
managed to put everything together in one book.
In this tour de force, a father, shaken by tragedy, tries to avenge his daughter’s murder—and restore his family’s shattered life. It was supposed to be a typical October evening for renowned portrait artist Will Light. Over dinner of lamb tagine, his wife, Sophie, would share news about chorus rehearsals for the upcoming holiday concert, and their teenage daughter, Lucy, would chatter about French club and field hockey. Only Lucy never came home. Her body was found, days later, in the woods. The Eastern Seaboard town of Port Fortune used to be Will’s comfort. Now, there’s no safe harbor for him. Not even when Father Gervase asks Will to paint portraits of saints for the new cathedral, using the townspeople as models. The only thing Will sees in each face is a mask of the darkness of evil. And he just might be painting his daughter’s killer. As Will navigates his rage and heartbreak, Sophie tries to move on; Father Gervase becomes an unexpected ally; and Rain, Lucy’s best friend, shrouds herself in a near-silent fugue. Their paths collide in a series of inextricably linked, dark, dangerous moments that could lead to their undoing…or to their redemption.
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