Saturday, February 12, 2011

The Promises She Keeps-Erin Healy

The Promises She Keeps
Erin Healy
Thomas Nelson, Feb 14 2011, $14.99
ISBN: 9781595547514

Suffering cystic fibrosis, Promise knows she is dying soon. Her fear is not death, but life as she yearns to be loved and be in the memory of loved ones. Her only chance is music.

At college Zack Eddy asks if he can take photos of her so he can draw pictures of her from them; she agrees. During the shoot, her shawl blows away. Promise dives for it only to tumble down the bluffs overlooking the Oregon coast. Zack takes pictures of her dive to death, but miraculously she lives. Other near death experiences always occur with Zack nearby occurs. He shows his photos to his pagan witch mom Porta Cerreto who believes Promise is the Goddess of Immortality and plans to use her for own purpose. As she stalks Promise, she orders her son to kill Promise to disprove her theory. However, autistic Chase Ellis who draws pictures of trees sees inside Porta’s withered soul and knows she will hurt Promise if he fails to intervene.

This is a strange whimsical character driven tale that hooks the audience from the opening scene with Chase and never slows down as the reader will be stunned with a shocking late twist. The key to the thriller besides the well developed four lead characters is somehow author Erin Healy. Makes the impossible seem possible even when it seems over the top of Mount Hood. The Promises She Keep is an exhilarating tale as eternal life is boringly meaningless without eternal love.

Harriet Klausner

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