Earl Staggs Reviews: "Deadly Sins-Deadly Secrets"

Occasionally, I can talk Earl Staggs into providing a review. This is one of those occasions and I am glad he was willing to contribute the following review.



Deadly Sins – Deadly Secrets
By Sylvia Dickey Smith
http://www.sylviadickeysmith.com/
L&L Dreamspell
http://www.lldreamspell.com/
ISBN 978-1-60318-018-4



In her first novel, DANCE ON HIS GRAVE, Sylvia Dickey Smith introduced Sidra Smart, a woman brave enough to step out of an inhibitive marriage and begin a new life. When she divorced her possessive, controlling Baptist minister husband, Sid had no idea what she was stepping into. First, she inherited a private investigation agency from her late brother along with a leftover case involving an old murder. Next, she discovered within herself a person she did not know existed, a person unable to ignore injustice or turn away people desperately needing help, even if it meant placing her own life in danger.

In DEADLY SINS – DEADLY SECRETS, Sid continues her journey toward personal self-discovery, supported once again by her somewhat eccentric and lovable Aunt Annie and a crusty veteran PI willing to teach her the tricks of the trade, but who also enjoys her stumbling attempts to learn the hard way. In this, her second case as a PI, Sid is drawn into a situation wherein shrouded secrets of the past must be revealed to solve grisly murders of the present. Her digging for the truth extends as far back as Civil War days in the small East Texas town where the story is set when she discovers the diary of a fascinating and feisty woman who seems to be nudging Sid in the right direction.

Sid’s resolve to prove a man innocent of murder in spite of staggering evidence against him leads her through attempts on her life, butting heads with powerful people equally determined to keep old secrets hidden, and a romantic involvement she tried hard to avoid.

Sylvia Dickey Smith is a talented author who, in this second novel as successfully as in her first, seamlessly weaves the story of a woman determined to become the person she left behind years ago with an engrossing tale of murder, deceit and suspense.

Reviewed by Earl Staggs © 2007