Review of MURDER OF THE PRODIGAL FATHER
by Mark Wm Smith

Author Thomas Wolfe orated, “You can't go home again.” My response is:
“in some cases, whyever would you want to?” This would be the case with Connor Pierce, formerly of tiny Miles City, Montana. The man reaches adulthood despite his unpleasant father, enlists in the Air Force, becomes an airplane mechanic (memorizing every single tiny mistake that can crash a plane), lives on Okinawa, marries and fathers children (despite the fact in his own life of the Role Model of How Not To Parent). Eventually, Daddy dies. Supposedly, a heart attack, actually more mysterious—as in, what really happened? So Connor flies the 18-hour “endless” trip from Okinawa to Eastern Montana, falling right back into old flame, old friend, abused sister—and a whole bunch of nobody-wants-the-truth-revealed.

I give Author Smith a lot of credit for bringing this setting, and these characters alive. I didn't have to like them, but I surely did get “up close and personal” with them. MURDER OF THE PRODIGAL FATHER is a very vivid and sensory story.

Exciting, sexy and suspenseful. A full throttle thrill ride that will keep you on the edge of your seat right up until the end! This should be on your MUST Read List!

*I received a complimentary ARC of this book from NetGalley & BooksGoSocial in order to read and provide a voluntary, unbiased and honest review, should I choose to do so.

#MurderOfTheProdigalFather #NetGalley

A delightful murder mystery of a prodigal and profligate head of a family in Montana. The book talks about the complex inter-relationships of a typical family in and around Miles City and other places in Montana and each character in the book is developed quite well to indicate their idiosyncrasies and peculiarities of how they deal with their individual lives. Lots of details about the intricacies of everyday life in Montana helps you to know about the daily life style of people in Montana. A modicum of violence interspersed with generous doses of intrigue and mystery helps you to enjoy this crisp city based story line set in Montana. Some areas of improvement could focus on small grammatical gaps and maybe a printer's devil for the word - reprecussion which may be repercussion.

The story starts innocuously and begins to wind and then slowly the tempo builds up and by the time you reach the mid of the story line, you are hooked and you are trying to identify who could be the perpetrator and you will be left amazed by the ending of the story as the author skillfully and deftly weaves a complex story line involving many individuals and their interactions which gives rise to a lot of conjecture as the author leads you to one false lead over another till you just about stumble on who might be the perpetrator only to be left amazed by the ending of the story. The story helps you to ruminate over how relationships in today's world have become complex, difficult and many times meaningless (and in some cases meaningful) over the mad rush to acquire greatness in whatever material form you may desire in life.

Connor Pierce leaves his family to deal with his father's death. When he looks into his father's death, he believes it was murder. Now he has to ask his friends that he left behind for their help. But in doing so, he puts himself in harms way to be possibly murdered. This is a very good story of a man that has to decide many things about his family. Things that are taboo.