Newly engaged, Dr. Quinn Allenby is called upon to examine the skeletal remains of a woman and child found buried naked and face down in non-consecrated ground on the fringes of a leper cemetery. Quinn must use her psychic gift to unearth the secrets that led to the death of the victims, since there isn’t much else to go on, and to discover why the deceased were denied a Christian burial and … and humiliated even in death, a punishment reserved only for the truly wicked and depraved.
But as Quinn delves into this disturbing new case, she must confront secrets that are much more recent and closer to home. Some have the power to destroy her future with Gabe, while others may finally shed light on her true parentage and lead her to the source of her unwelcome gift.
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Second book in the series. Gabe and Quinn face a very unexpected challenge that will change their lives forever. The historical story shows how a natural event was interpreted as being caused by the wrath of God as well as the thinking that a physical ailment could also be the work of the devil. Great read.
This is a fantastic series. This is the second book in the series. I love how the Author tells the story of going back and forth during different times as Quinn tries to figure out what happened to the Woman in the past. A mystery that as you listen comes together like a puzzle. The characters just come alive as you listen. The Narrator does a Fantastic job at bringing put the characters. This is definitely a must read series.
Shauna Joesten
Dr. Quinn Allenby is an archaeologist and historian who is asked by a friend who is a BBC producer to evaluate the skeletal remains found in unmarked graves face down. She gleans what information science and historical documents can give, but she can see the lives of the deceased played out in her mind when she holds any personal items belonging to them. She has plenty of drama in her personal life as well, so this is a personal journey on two fronts for her.
In 2014, Dr. Quinn Allenby’s life is falling into place in some aspects and falling apart in others. While her engagement to Gabe is like living in a dream and her newly forged relationship with her birth mother is off to a timid, yet warm start, the hunt for her biological father is still on and each candidate leaves something to be desired. But it’s not only her uncertain parentage that leaves her feeling uneasy. An accident leaves Gabe with a series of obstacles and trials that forces her to put her needs on the back burner to support him and take on a new role she wasn’t prepared for.
Despite the whirlwind of her personal life, she needs to keep working on the Echoes from the Past television series. It brings her to a pair of skeletons, a woman and a young boy who had been buried face down in unholy ground. Whatever their crimes had been, it had been bad enough to cast shame over them for all eternity. Quinn has to use her gifts to find out who they were in life and how they ended up in the makeshift graves.
In 1346, Petra has just buried her husband, who was a good provider, but an abusive man who had no kindness in his heart. She’s left to care for her son and two young daughters alone and she takes a position as a companion to a sharp, old woman she once served in her youth. Petra’s mother pushes her to remarry, but Petra had only loved one man in her youth, and he had left her pregnant and alone, leaving her to marry in haste to hide her growing belly. An eligible man now wants to marry her, but the reappearance of her first love clouds her mind and before long she’ll need to choose between a man she doesn’t love who can offer her the world, or the man she’s always loved that she can never be with, the father of her only son.
Both Quinn and Petra are strong women who want to follow their hearts and find they true paths, but when their roads intersect in two different times, Quinn finds that Petra’s tale may be too much to bear.
Shapiro has done it again. I listened to this book every spare minute and couldn’t get enough. When I was in Quinn’s car, driving through Scotland, I worried about Petra. And when I was following Petra to market in her seaside village, I wondered what Quinn was up to. It’s easy to get lost in the characters since you’re inserted so firmly into their minds. It also makes their tragedies more painful, but that’s what makes a story stick with you.
At times, I wanted to shake Petra for her choices. As a historian, I understood firmly what her life would be like without a good husband and I wanted to push her into her wealthy suitor’s arms so she could finally have some peace. I wanted her son to get a good apprenticeship and her daughters have high dowries so they might pick their husbands. But she was in love, and although I didn’t want her to suffer for it, I knew she had to live her life her own way.
This book is perfect for mystery lovers, history fans, people that want some thrills with their romance, peppered with dramatics.
For me, this one was not quite as good as the first one. Although it was fairly well edited, there is one of my top pet peeves. Toward the end, Quinn goes to visit Steven Kane. Throughout the chapter, the spelling of his name goes back and forth between Steven and Stephen. Pick one – I don’t care which – and stay with it. I always feel like a simple read through would catch something like this.
Again, we are presented with 2 stories in one. Quinn and Gabe are now engaged and looking forward to planning their wedding. The BBC show is one down, two to go, and Quinn is down to 2 possible candidates for her father. Rhys calls with a new show project – the bones of a woman and child buried face down just outside a cemetery near Dunwich.
The bones belong to Petra and Edwin Ordell, mother and son. As the story unfolds, we find that Petra is newly widowed, caring for her mother and three children, and in fairly dire straits. She gets a job as companion to a local Lady. While in Lady Blythe’s employ, Petra is reacquainted with her son, Lord Thomas Devon. Thomas is also recently widowed, and claims to have long had feelings for Petra. He is interested in marrying her and taking on the care of her family. This should really be a no-brainer for her. Here is a great guy – kind, compassionate, and loving – who wants to love her and care for her family. However, Petra has a secret or two. The first is that Edwin is epileptic – which in that day and time was grossly misunderstood. The second is that Edwin is not the son of her first husband. Rather, he is the product of an affair with a local boy, Avery, who was sent off to become a priest. Avery has been sent to a local monastery to reflect on some radical views for the time – namely people should have personal access to scriptures. Petra is still stuck on a past, adolescent crush/love for him, so she rekindles an affair with him. Her choices have wide ranging consequences for all involved.
Meanwhile, Quinn continues her search for her birth father. She rules out yet another, while also having the bombshell dropped that there might be a fourth candidate. Things are great with Gabe until he gets the bombshell dropped that he is father to a four year old, her mother has been killed in a car accident, and he now has sole custody. Nothing like going from zero to instant family. Most of Quinn’s story deals with the search for her father and the impact of Gabe’s newly found daughter on their relationship.
First, I am looking forward to the conclusion in The Unforgiven. Second, I felt more for Thomas and Edwin than Petra or Avery in the Medieval story line. I had much more empathy for Elise in The Lover’s than for Petra. Petra lived a hard life with her first husband. However, she put herself in a situation that required her to marry pretty much the first man she could find. She then lied to him about the paternity of her child. And while Cyril was a complete lout, Thomas, who she was prepared to do the same exact thing to, was not. Thomas was also the man that did his best to protect Edwin from the superstitions of the people. All in all, this moves the entirety of the story along and I look forward to the conclusion. Enjoy.