The Crowning Circle
   J.R. Lankford
  2001 Xlibris Corporation
    ISBN: 0738830658


Guest Reviewer Sandi von Pier writes:

In a quiet Ohio town, there have been a series of unusual deaths -- only one actually classified as a murder. When a street kid he had wanted to adopt is killed by the police, “Doc” Skeet Cullum, the local forensic psychologist & a Viet Nam Veteran, inevitably becomes emotionally entangled. Even with his own theory about death, he can't make any sense of it.

The Crowning Circle starts out with a horrible murder -- right in a garden -- the place I go to relax, so this book hit home in the first chapter. J. R. Lankford's characters are introspective & that made me examine my own thoughts & feelings about life & love -- & murder.

For years Skeet & Jake have been getting together every Thursday to jam on their classic guitars. Jake is a brilliant reclusive inventor-engineer, with his own company facing a crucial deadline for a client. On this particular Thursday Jake realizes that Skeet is deeply troubled. He prods his friend for an explanation & for the first time angry words are exchanged.

Because I like how quiet & shy he is, I especially liked Jake. Skeet, a kind man with a past that haunts him, is also well drawn. He reminds me so much of the men I know with his closed-up personality. There so much promise that simmers just below the surface.

In the next few days after Skeet & Jake jam, all hell breaks loose as Skeet hunts for clues to a killer before he strikes again. Jake, being a mathematician, turns to his computers to find a pattern to the murders. When one emerges no one wants to hear it so in desperation he leaves the safety of his laboratory to look at the crime scenes & in doing so becomes entangled in the lives of the victims' families. Little do Skeet & Jake realize just how vital that entanglement will prove to be.

The Crowning Circle is also a love story. Between Skeet & Shirley, a fiery-tempered, mixed-blooded woman with her own past. How long will Shirley wait around for Skeet to commit? It is also about Jake & Gabrielle. She who steals Jake's heart in one evening & then leaves to go home, to the Pyrenees, to get answers to long unanswered questions. She promises to return to him.

It is also about computers & the infinite ways they can help & hinder us. How they can retrieve information, create illusions, correlate seemingly unrelated events & come up with surreal results.

& it's about the strange ways of the human mind when rage & sorry overwhelm & the only outlet is to do unto others what has been done unto you.

Together it adds to this fast-paced, multi-layered thriller. I received an email from this author saying she had read my online review of another book & recommended I give hers a try. I like finding new authors to follow so I read the excerpts which intrigued me. I immediately ordered the book.

My life doesn't give me the time to just sit & read a book from cover to cover. Basically it's a little here & a little there. I found that with this author's style of writing I didn't lose the story when I had to leave for a few hours, even though I didn't want to. J.R. Lankford is definitely an author to watch!

Do catch my Interview with this thrilling author & check out the authors website at http://www.noveldoc.com/lankford
(06/10/01)

Sandi von Pier
A RebeccasReads.com Guest Reviewer