fuonlyknew

This is a Tag Team Event hosted by myself and Sherry.

 It’s always a pleasure to share more books by Kathryn Meyer Griffith. I’ve read many of her books and plan to read everything she writes.

For today, I’m sharing my review of The Ive Bridge.

After reading my review, head on over to Sherry’s blog at fundinmental for more and check out her review. Two chances to win!

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The Ice bridge

by Kathryn Meyer Griffith

Genre: Mystery / Suspense

My Review

If there’s one thing I know about Kathryn’s stories, whether horror or suspense or thrillers, it’s that they’re not predictable. You think you know what’s going to happen, but then she throws you some sidewinder scenarios and it’s anything goes from there.

She has now proven to me that she can write a great romance mystery also. Many of her books have these elements included in them, but this is the first one of hers I’ve read that isn’t a horror story too.

You’ll meet some really great characters. So genuine, you’ll feel like you’ve known them a long time. The main protagonist, Charlotte, just arrived on Mackinac Island, running from a fiance who jilted her for her best friend almost at the altar, and a job she couldn’t stand. Staying with her Aunt Bess, who could sure use her company, perhaps they’ll both find a new sense of worth and love for life.

Her chance encounter with a handsome police officer, Mac, stirs feelings she knows she shouldn’t have. It’s too soon. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be friends. And, upon expressing her interest in writing a book, Mac suggests that Charlotte write about the ghosts that are rumored to be roaming the island.

This was such a great idea to add to the story. I always enjoy reading stories with writers in them, and it was fun to read about some of the ghostly encounters as they’re related to Charlotte. I’d like to read that book!

Charlotte is surprised how quickly she settles into her new life, and she renews a loving friendship with her elderly neighbor, Hannah. Hannah has been her friend since she was a young lass and they enjoy that same trust and love again.

But then Hannah goes missing and Charlotte fears the worst. Could she have fallen victim to the Ice Bridge? The ice bridge is a way for islanders to cross the lake when winter settles in and cuts them off. Once it’s checked and deemed safe, they use it ride their snowmobiles to land and replenish supplies. If something happened to Hannah, they might never find her body.

Charlotte won’t rest until she finds out what happened to Hannah. Accident or murder, she’ll dig out the clues and find out the truth, no matter the danger she may be in.

I’ve visited Mackinac Island several times. The author paints such a vivid description that I see it all anew, even though it’s been years since I was there. I’d love to visit in the winter, see the fabulous Grand Hotel encased in icicles, snow covering the beautifully shaped shrubs and historical homes. I wouldn’t be brave enough to venture on the ice bridge, though.

It was such a wonderful surprise how much I loved this story. I love her horror and thriller stories with demons and witches and rampaging dinosaurs, all out to kill you or eat you or both. This has none of that. There’s a murder, but nothing even younger readers can’t handle, a sweet brush at new romance, and some truly wonderful characters. I ate this up and sure didn’t want it to end. Kathryn’s talented writing shines as the story flows smoothly and quickly to a fabulous ending.

  5  Stars

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Synopsis

She’ll fall in love again…with a man and the island. Charlotte returns to her Aunt Bess and Mackinac Island, a quaint retreat that welcomes summer tourists and allows no cars to renew herself and write about the island’s ghosts.She’s come to help Bess with her heartache, an ended love with Shaun, and to renew a friendship with neighbor Hannah. In winter Mackinac closes down and everyone looks forward to the ice bridge that freezes across the Straits of Mackinac. Until Hannah disappears into the icy waters crossing it.Everyone says it’s an accident. But Charlotte and her admirer cop friend, Mac, don’t think so. Something isn’t right. Hannah was too smart to go off the path. So it’s murder…but why…how…by whom?In the end, it’s Mac-and perhaps Hannah’s ghost-who saves Charlotte and Bess’s lives when the killer decides they’re too close to the truth and tries to kill them, too.

Purchase on Amazon

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The Writing of THE ICE BRIDGE

By Kathryn Meyer Griffith

In 2003 my husband, Russell, and I were celebrating our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary and decided to return to quaint Mackinac Island in Michigan. We’d been there a few years before, but just for a quick afternoon stopover on our way home from visiting family in Wisconsin. We’d loved the Island for the few hours we’d been on it and promised ourselves we’d go there again someday. So when we began to plan for our anniversary vacation we traveled back for a longer stay of six days. I’d made reservations months ahead at the Iroquois Hotel on the water’s edge of Lake Huron and when the time came, after packing up everything we’d need, we jumped in the car and took off.

The Island doesn’t allow cars, only bicycles, horses and snowmobiles (in the winter) so we left our vehicle in a Mackinaw City parking lot on the mainland and boarded the ferry that would take us across the water to the Island, our luggage and two bicycles in tow. It was much cheaper to bring our own bikes instead of rent them there.

It was late August and the Island was beautiful. Crowded with colorful, fragrant flowers, clomping horses, whizzing bicycles and, of course, lots of tourists. Fudgies as they were called because they came, purchased and devoured so much of the little town’s fudge.

The Iroquois Hotel was lovely with its bright pastel colors and friendly service; a fancy in-house restaurant and our room with its wall of windows facing the lake. A lake that to me was as large as an ocean…because it went on forever.

Our six days there were heaven. We rode our bikes, peddling around the horses, carriages, and equine taxis, around the eight-mile in circumference island and enjoyed the sights. The friendly people. The breathtaking views of water, boats and woods. The fudge. We sped along West Bluff Road to the ritzy Grand Hotel (made famous in the 1980 romantic time travel movie Somewhere in Time with Jane Seymour and Christopher Reeve), ate the scrumptious and lavish tourists’ brunch there and afterwards, so full we could barely ride our bicycles, we gawked at the magnificent Victorian mansions with their elaborate gardens lining Lake Shore Drive.

We visited Fort Mackinac and listened amusedly to people talk about the ghost soldier some had reported seeing when twilight began to fall. My husband, a photography buff, even slipped out of our hotel room in the middle of one foggy night to get artsy pictures with our new digital camera of the fort, hoping to catch the ghost. He captured no ghost, but plenty of stunning photographs.

One night we even sat, spellbound, as a Lake Huron thunderstorm pounded wildly at our wall of windows. It was as if we were gazing at a tumultuous ocean.

Then one day someone, in a cubbyhole of a local hamburger joint, over our lunch, said something about the ice bridge, as the islanders called it. During the dead of winter, when the straits froze over, it was a narrow path that stretched about four miles across the ice that separated Mackinac Island from the St. Ignace mainland. The locals would drive in old Christmas trees along the path to show the way, to show it was now safe. To them the ice bridge meant freedom to come and go for up to two months a year without paying ferryboat or airplane fees. To me it sparked an idea for my next book…what if someone crossed the ice bridge one wintry night and fell through the ice? And disappeared…maybe even died?

I started asking questions of the locals: Had someone ever fallen through the ice and perished? Turns out over the years, that yes, some people actually had. Fallen in. When the ice wasn’t firm enough. Or when they’d gone off the solid marked path. Or in a snowstorm. Some on snowmobiles. Some were saved, dragged out, and some had not been. Hmmm.

That’s all it took for the book to begin forming in my head. The rest of the trip I looked at the Island with different eyes. A writer’s eyes. Writer’s ears. I filed away the memories and the home-grown stories recounted to me. Though most of my earlier books were romantic horror, I’d written a couple of straight contemporary murder mysteries, Scraps of Paper and All Things Slip Away, a few years before and Avalon Books had published them. I’d quite enjoyed writing them.

So I thought I’d write another one with Mackinac Island and its real and fictional ghost tales as the background. I’d show the beauty of the island, changing of the seasons, what it was like in summer, fall and winter (tons of snow and ice), and describe the historical landmarks. I’d spotlight the quirky close-knit inhabitants and have the protagonist gather their imaginary spirit stories to put into the ghost book she was writing. I’d make the Island nearly a main character itself with its enigmas, water, snow, ice and fog.

The novel would be about a woman, Charlotte, jilted in love, coming back to heal and visit her poignant childhood playground, and her lonely Aunt Bess. She’d meet an Island cop, Matt, and together they’d not only fall in love but would embark on a great dangerous adventure together. There’d be a spunky old lady, Hannah, living next door and the four would be great friends. Until the old lady disappears on a winter’s night while crossing the ice bridge and the mystery would begin. Had Hannah been murdered by someone….how exactly…by whom…and why? The remainder of the book would be the unraveling of that mystery as the central characters try to keep from being killed themselves by the devious murderer behind Hannah’s death. I’d embed the Island’s so-called ghost tales throughout the book to spice up the story even more. So it’d be a romantic ghostly murder mystery. Ah, ha. I couldn’t wait to begin.

When my husband and I returned home, refreshed and happy, I started it right away, with the memories of lovely Mackinac still fresh in my mind. Gosh, how I’d loved that Island. A tiny piece of old-fashioned paradise. The book came easily to me. And so The Ice Bridge was born. Now with a stunning new cover by Dawne Dominique and self-published for the first time along with my other 21 novels (going back to my 1985 The Heart of the Rose), in eBook, paperback and Audible audio book, it’s out in the world again for everyone to read and, I hope, enjoy.

Written this first day of December 2015 by the author Kathryn Meyer Griffith

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To enter, please leave your email address so I can contact you if you win and answer this question:

“Mackinac Island doesn’t allow cars. You get around by walking, bicycles, or horses. Which would you choose as your mode of transportation?”

Giveaway ends October 12th.

This is a Tag Team Event hosted by myself and Sherry at fundinmental.

Now hop on over to fundinmental, check out Sherry’s review, and enter for another chance to win  HERE.

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