A story of grief and of family, Someone to Blame is the story of one family’s quest for healing and one town’s quest for justice and how they come to intersect.
I deeply love Mrs. Lakin’s Gates of Heaven series, but I wasn’t really certain what to expect from Someone to Blame. What I found was a truly unique story about faith and loss. So many Christian fiction books seem to follow the same the formulas, and I enjoyed Someone to Blame almost as much for its originality as for the wonderfully crafted characters and deeply moving story.
The story shifts between several different characters perspective but mostly revolves around Matt and Irene, and their daughter Casey. Having recently lost both of their sons, and older brothers for Casey, through tragedies, the family relocates to a small coastal town in Oregon, trying desperately to cope with their loss and not lose each other in the process. Arriving at nearly the same time is Billy Thurber, a young man from up in the mountains who instantly sets the town on edge with his harsh manners and hardened look. When things start going missing in the town, suspicion falls on Billy and when Matt realizes that fourteen old Casey might be interested in the older boy, he allows his grief and anger to start thinking for him. However, Irene also meets Billy without knowing his connection with the rest of her family, and he provides a very different outlet for her as God once again brings her a boy in need of a mother.
With a touch of mystery, a great deal of individual expressions of grief and then healing, and some of that small town Mitfordy love and community, Something to Blame is wonderful book. It is however, very much not a book for young readers as it contains flashbacks and scenes of extreme violence. And I can see it being inappropriate for readers who are bothered by depictions of accident victims and suicide.
My thanks to Zondervan for providing me with a copy of Someone to Blame, in return for my honest opinion of the book.