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Through the Heart Reviews: |
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Library Journal (starred reveiw)
Morgenroth (They Did It with Love) gracefully tells a love story, tragedy, and mystery from three very different perspectives: Nora's, Timothy's, and the findings of a police report. Nora is a young woman taking care of her ailing mother in her Kansas hometown, working in a knockoff Starbucks coffee shop, living a shadow of a life as her mother goes through treatment for leukemia. Timothy is a moneyed New Yorker, existing in a cold life of privilege and prestige. When a chance encounter between the two starts an unlikely relationship, facets of their personalities and their family relationships are slowly uncovered, revealing surprises for everyone involved. The crafting here is more literary fiction than popular mystery, but fans of both will be captivated by this haunting tale. VERDICT: With character studies, a deep love story, challenging yet wildly differing filial duties, and a murder mystery, the only disappointment is that this beautifully gripping novel ends. Highly recommended.
-Julie Kane, Sweet Briar Coll. Lib., VA
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Booklist (starred review)
It's clear from the start that there will be no happy ending to the love story of Nora and Timothy. The novel's opening pages include a police report of a person stabbed in the heart in a bed-and-breakfast in the Hamptons. Finding our who was murdered at whose hands wil keep readers turning pages compulsively to the closing twists of this cunningly constructed mystery. Nora who gave up graduate studies ineconomics to come home to care for her cancer-stricken divorced mother works in a coffee shop in a small town in Kansas. Timothy, who manages the wealth of his family in manhattan stops in for a latte as he whiles away time before a meeting with Warren Buffet in Omaha. Alternating first-person accouonts by the instantly attracted pair, in which they details their inner hopes and fears and describe their dysfunctional families and closest friends, are interspersed with reports about homicides involving loved ones, leading up to the murder on the eve of a wedding. Morgenroth's full bodied characterizations even of minor fugures, plus the powerful forward motion of her narrative make this unusual mystery absolutely compelling. Quite possibly a breaktrhough novel by the author of They Did It with Love, 2007.
New Mystery Reader
From the very beginning in Morgenroth’s latest masterpiece, readers are made aware that there is going to be a murder. But just who, when, why, and where isn’t revealed until near the end. She begins by sharing a love story told in alternate narratives of the two main characters: Nora, a woman who was on her way to success until brought back home to Kansas to take care of her cancer-ridden mother, and Timothy, a wealthy and handsome man from New York City who seems to have everything but love.
Fate brings the two together when Timothy ends up in Kansas via a few odd twists of circumstances and winds up in the coffee shop where Nora is working. And while these two very different people seem the most unlikely couple, the attraction they feel for each other is sudden and almost overwhelming, and one that will eventually sett off a chain of events that will lead to tragedy.
Morgenroth’s devilishly sly approach to this story is uniquely unnerving for what it doesn’t make obvious, providing a great deal of unexpected suspense without a single drop of blood falling for the most part of the read. By letting readers know that something is going to happen, she lets that create its own ominous feeling that easily instills a sense of unease throughout. But that’s not even what makes the read soar above so many others in the genre - it’s how she subtly but convincingly reveals her characters’ true selves that makes this so utterly mesmerizing. Readers get enough glimpses into the deeper aspects of these lovers that while alarm bells are ringing, we just don’t know quite why and what that will mean in the end. An excellent character study, an astounding mystery; this read reinforces the idea that literate fiction and mystery can coexist in one book.
-Stephanie Padilla
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Independent Bookseller: Tattered Cover
This is a story told twice--once by Nora and once by Timothy. It is a love story. It is a murder mystery. It keeps you guessing to the very end because it is extremely cleverly written. The character
development is deft, and the story moves along quickly with no small touch of humor running throughout. I had TREMENDOUS difficulty putting this book down. Trust me--you want to read this book.