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Summary
Summary
A contemporary novel set in Misp, a little logging town on the rugged Olympic Peninsula in the Pacific Northwest, The Civil Wars of Jonah Moran tells the story of Jessica Moran, a woman whose deep sense of family loyalty collides with her equally strong sense of justice. The Morans have their problems like anybody else: Jessica hasn't yet come to terms with her autocratic mother & she's still haunted by painful issues from her past. Her brother Jonah has always been something of a misfit, but when he's accused of arson, Jessica just can't believe it's true. Still, someone set fire to the halfway house, killing three of the four ex-cons who called it home as they tried to rebuild their lives. Yet even as evidence against Jonah mounts, most of Misp seems ready to forgive & protect him, closing ranks with a small town's contradictory swirl of malice, bigotry, community allegiance, & compassion. Jessica must confront her own fears, come to her own conclusions, & somehow reconcile her love for her brother--& her grudging respect & growing feeling for the forensics expert who may send Jonah to jail for life.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
The smoky scent of the past lingers in this confident second novel, set on Washington's Olympic Peninsula and infused with the deep-forest spirit of the Pacific Northwest. Returning to the logging town of Misp after her failed marriage, 30ish Jessica Moran, the daughter of a mill owner, starts a window-cleaning company and devotes herself to her brother Jonah, a gentle misfit afflicted with Asperger's syndrome (an disease like autism) and obsessed with the Civil War. If it weren't for Jonah, Jessica might never communicate with her formidable mother, Lila, who is now head of the family business, since she is convinced that Lila was responsible for Jessica's father's death by drowning nearly 20 years before. Only after a fire consumes Misp's new halfway house for Seattle convicts, leaving evidence of Jonah's presence at the scene, is the smoldering legacy of that long-ago summer fully reawakened. The investigator for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is none other than Quinault Indian lawyer Callum Luke, Jessica's childhood sweetheart, and as Jessica and Callum look for the cause of the fire, they revisit the fraught period after Jessica's father's death and the sudden ending of their relationship. Their fears, the town's bigotry, the truths they did not wish to face are all aired as the current crime is solved. Reynolds (The Starlite Drive-in) once again proves herself a sure-handed storyteller, alternating Jessica's coming-of-age memories with the criminal investigation and unraveling the Moran family's painful history in deft measures. But her prose really soars when she describes the timberlandÄa tent in the woods, the bottom of an overgrown lake, a drive over remote roads during a stormÄcapturing the almost magical spiritual connection between people and the land. Agent, Angela Rinaldi. Regional author tour. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
A young woman fights to defend her disabled brother against charges of arson'and finds the past intruding in bittersweet ways as her first love comes back into her life and she learns the truth about her long-dead father. This time out, the Washington-based Reynolds (The Starlite Drive-in, 1997) sets her story in a logging town on the Olympic Peninsula. Not only about love, romance, and family, the narrative also sympathetically examines the uneasy relations between the local whites and the Native Americans of a nearby reservation. Jessica Moran, now in her mid-30s, has returned home after leaving as a teenager to live in California. She's not ready to forgive her mother, Lila, the local mill-owner, for her father's death 19 years ago. She does want, however, to help her younger brother, Jonah, who has always had a condition similar to autism. Although Jonah doesn't relate well to people, he's an expert on the Civil War, whose battles he endlessly reenacts with miniature soldiers. When a suspicious fire kills three out of four paroled sex offenders living in a halfway house, the townspeople are not unhappy, but, worse, Jonah is suspect number one. The evidence? A model soldier found on the premises. Callum Luke, a Native American lawyer now working for the government, arrives to investigate. In addition, he's Jessica's first love and the father of the daughter she gave up for adoption in California'at her mother's insistence. As Jessica fights to protect Jonah, she's harassed by the fire's lone survivor, a molester. Plus, she clashes with Callum; they later make love, only to quarrel again, when she reveals the daughter's existence. Eventually the facts about the fire and her father's drowning bring vindications and reconciliations'and with Callum ready to forgive, Jessica wins some civil wars of her own. Well-done characters in an unevenly paced tale that takes its time but still delivers.
Booklist Review
Jessica Moran, recently divorced, has just moved back to the small logging town in the Pacific Northwest where she grew up. She is working as a window washer and coming to terms with issues surrounding her father's death and the daughter she was forced to give up for adoption. Soon after her return, the new and unwanted halfway house for criminals is set on fire, and Jessica's younger brother Jonah is the main suspect. Jessica knows her brother would not commit any crime and sets out to prove his innocence to the town. Problems arise for Jessica when she discovers that her high-school boyfriend, Callum Luke, has been sent from Seattle to be the official arson inspector. Callum grew up on a Native American reservation and has never been accepted by the town, except for Jessica. Together they will solve the mystery of the fire and force the people of the town to face their prejudices and fears. Reynolds uses vibrant characters to tell an endearing story about coming to terms with family and friends despite multiple obstacles. --Julie Glynn
Library Journal Review
A small logging town on Washington State's Olympic Peninsula is the setting for Reynolds's (The Starlite Drive-in) second novel. At 35, when she returns to her hometown to live, Jessica Moran carries a lot of emotional baggage from events that occurred almost two decades before. She still blames her domineering mother for the overly harsh treatment of Jonah, her younger brother, which led to her father's drowning death. Worst of all, when 16-year-old Jessica became pregnant by Callum Luke, a high school classmate and Quinault Indian who lived on the reservation abutting her family's lumber mill, her mother sent Jessica to relatives in California and insisted that she give the baby up for adoption. Shortly after Jessica moves back home, a fire breaks out in a halfway house for ex-cons, killing three of the four residents, and Callum, now working for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, is brought in to investigate the fire. Although all the evidence points to Jonah, always regarded a misfit, Jessica refuses to believe her brother's guilt. Still remorseful that she never told Callum about their child, Jessica is forced to cooperate with him in order to clear her brother and discover the real perpetrator of the crime. Pleasant if predictable; for larger collections.ÄNancy Pearl, Washington Ctr. for the Book, Seattle (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
