Repentances

Rating:
Summary: Mystical and tragic
Review: Annette Meyers has a varied past, having worked sixteen years as an executive search consultant on Wall Street, and then since 1996 as an arbitrator with the National Association of Securities Dealers. She also spent sixteen years as an assistant to Hal Prince on Broadway. Meyers is the author of seven published mysteries and has had her short stories published in various anthologies. She is a former president of Sisters in Crime and is the current president of the International Association of Crime Writers in North America.

The title Repentences is a metaphor for an oil painting that has been painted over another painting. As the paint ages, the old painting may "ghost" through.

It's 1936 in New York, and the Jewish population is feverishly trying to bring loved ones over from Germany. Nathan Evanholz is waiting for his wife and child and has already paid for their passage. But his family is tragically killed, and in his sorrow he commits a murder and a kidnaping of a young girl, believing her to be his daughter. His sister researches the child's origins, and when she sees the terrible privation and abuse agrees to engage in "the lie" to protect the child...Rosie. But Rosie has to eventually discover the truth, and that truth may destroy her as her adopted family frets:

"Anna is afraid. Rosie is her child, not of her loins, but her soul. Loved and protected. But not Nathan nor Anna can protect her from her past now. What they can do is help heal the damage they've done. They must tell her the truth and accept the possibility that she will not forgive them."

Repentences is not a murder mystery, but an historical mystery which portrays a slice of what life in New York was like for the Jewish people in New York, trying to hold on to their identities and some semblance of family life. Desperate circumstances beget creative solutions, and Meyers creates a rich tapestry which whirls around a simple family just trying to hold on to sanity. As the past bleeds through Rosie's subconscious, she must deal with ghosts of the past before she can truly self-actuate. Meyers' characters love fully, and spend a great deal of time trying to work through pain too deep to comprehend. Her tale is mystical and tragic.

Shelley Glodowski, Senior Reviewer
Midwest Book Review