Ashes to Water by Irene Ziegler

I truly love a book that envelops all my senses as I read.  My sight, of course, in the reading itself, but also in the vividness of a character; my nose, with the smell of things like brewing coffee, frying bacon, smoke from a fire and a Florida marsh; and my ears with the sounds of oars slapping the water, the whir of a line cast by a fisherman, or the screech of a bird of prey's successful hunt.  Each of these occurs in Ashes to Water, a debut mystery by Irene Ziegler.  This is a marvelous book, rich in sensory details and clever in plotting.  I loved it.

It begins with:

Lying still, Annie....thought of mermaids.  They lurked in Widow Lake, she was sure of it.  She had only to unlock the mystery of breathing underwater and her own transformation would be complete.  Her mother, who used to be a professional skier at Cypress Gardens, claimed to know the secret to breathing underwater.  She spent time with Annie in the lake, whispering words that awed and excited:  "Learning takes time, but if you are truly dedicated, and want to breathe underwater more than anything in the world, you will succeed and become a mermaid."

Ashes to Water is the story of Annie Bartlett who returns home when her father is murdered.  She has been away from Florida for a long time, over 10 years.  She and her sister, Leigh, left their home as soon as they were able and have not been close to Ed Bartlett since that time.  Their mother died in Widow Lake, adjacent to their home, when Annie was 9 and Leigh was 13.  Nothing has ever been the same since that day.

Annie, who is engaged to be married, thinks that she is coming home to bury her father and confront his girlfriend, who is accused of bludgeoning him to death.  She contacts Leigh to determine if she can count on her older sister to be there as well.  Leigh, who has struggled with addictions of all kinds, promises to show up to help out, but she is more interested in finding out whether the sisters will inherit their father's home on Widow Lake.  Annie has not been a stranger to psychological problems herself.  Her mother, Helen, has "visited" her since her childhood and Helen's voice has discouraged Annie from being a part of Ed's life.  Now, Annie surprises herself and her sister and friends when she vows to find out who murdered Ed, because she is convinced that it was not Della, the accused girlfriend.

Annie's search for Ed's killer is not the only problem afloat in this small Florida town.  Someone is setting fires at a new development, Leigh's drug dealer and current boyfriend is after her, and more bodies begin turning up.  Suddenly, Annie isn't sure who she can trust and the old friends she encounters in her hometown may be hiding more than she suspects.

I was so pleased to be able to read Ashes to Water as part of this blog tour.  Irene Ziegler has written a very suspenseful novel with multiple storylines and plot twists.  She is very gifted in her descriptions, and I felt like the characters almost literally jumped off the page.  The Florida setting was as much of a character as any other.  The author hails from this part of the country and her words evoke the beauty of unspoiled sections of 1980's Florida.  An example:

Annie's camera framed a half-tropical forest shadowing the low shore.  The river carried a perfume of cypress, myrtle and magnolia, flowed into fingers harboring egrets, ducks and whooping cranes.  She zoomed on a bald eagle, gliding atop a thermal pocket.  The eagle suddenly flattened its wings against its body, swooped, then rose again, a rodent squirming in its beak.  As it flapped to a distant stand of trees, no doubt to feed the chicks, Annie marveled at the beauty, grace and uncompromising instincts of this impressive bird of prey.

Pick up Ashes to Water or check it out at your local library.  Mystery readers will enjoy this book, but it will also appeal to lovers of beautiful language and lovely descriptions of a fast vanishing setting.  You can bet that I will be adding Irene Ziegler to my list of must buy authors.  I'll be anxious to see what is next for this talented author.

I am appreciative to Trish of TLC Book Tours for asking me to be part of this blog tour.  Irene Ziegler's website is located here.  She sent me her prior book, Rules of the Lake, a short story collection that is a sort of prequel to this book.  I'll be giving it away at some point after I finish reading it myself.  Check out the other stops on this blog tour here.