drey's library

Jamie Madden never expected to get this involved when Gretchen Waters’ mother asks her to be the literary executor of Gretchen’s work-in-progress upon Gretchen’s death. Apparently Gretchen was working on the follow-up to her country-music infused memoir, Tammyland, when she fell down the stairs to her death.When Jamie starts looking through Gretchen’s notes, however, she finds that Gretchen has deviated from her original plan of writing about the men of country music, and appears to have been tracking down her biological father.The story is told through snippets of Tammyland, Gretchen’s notes, and Jamie’s own interviews with Gretchen’s mother’s BFFs and famiy members. Now, this isn’t the kind of book that’s all-action, all the time, like a James Bond or Jason Bourne. Instead, Arsenault’s descriptive prose means parts of it are a bit slow and meandering, but all of it eventually leads you to the surprising reveal – because even as the potential perpetrators thrown in your way are cleared of wrong-doing, you’ll never guess whodunnit. Or, maybe you will, but you’ll still enjoy the journey! drey’s rating: Excellent!