True Believers by Linda Dorrell

After reading the phenomenal Face to Face, I looked forward to reading True Believers.
Peggy Nickels is a spunky woman with a dream to restore an old church in her hometown. But she has deeper reasons for wanting to take on this project.
Peggy offers to give the deed to the land to Otha Lee, a local African-American pastor, in return for his endorsement of their project. Otha Lee is having other troubles of his own, like attempting to restore his broken relationship with his son.
The reason behind Peggy's effort in the project makes a lot of sense and reflects Linda Dorrell's usual originality. But the unnecessary romantic subplot and the lack of good main characters are what keeps this book off of the Elite List.
There is one very original thing Linda does at the end that almost gets this book on the Elite List. The continual furtherment of the romantic subplot ruined it for me.
All in all, this wasn't a bad book and you should read it if you can find a copy somewhere.
3 stars

Face to Face by Linda Dorrell

Linda Dorrell is such a little known author that not even Amazon carries her books. But there's no reason why. Face to Face is a mystery that is easily better than many more popular mysteries on the market.
Wanda is a recovering alcoholic, sober for three years now, trying to rebuild a broken relationship with her daughter, who ran away from her several years before. But when Wanda arrives at the town Kendall, her daughter, was living, she finds that someone else has moved into her former apartment.
And no one in town knows where Kendall went.
Bruce is a police officer with marital issues. He has discovered two bodies of two women in a nearby forest. One is alive, the other dead for a long time. The only problem is, the one who is alive is mute and in a coma.
Wanda travels to the town where Kendall lived, all the way plagued by memories of her daughter's hate for her and by a renewed vigor for the bottle.
What she finds in the small town shocks her.
This plot is a plot based on the choices of the lead, the type of plot that needs to be written more often because this type of thing happens every day.
The end of the story is original and something mystery authors should have been doing a long time ago. While it seems like Wanda and Bruce would be good bids for a romantic subplot together, they are not. In fact, there is no permanent romantic subplot at all.
Basically, Linda Dorrell has defied the reader's rule of thumb "it's not any good if no one's heard of it."
Well, I have heard of it and read it cover to cover. I suggest you should next.
4.5 stars