1938, la guerre se rapproche des États-Unis, les enfants des premiers épisodes sont devenus adultes et prennent de l’importance dans la narration. Un quatrième volet plus apaisé, mais qui contient son lot de surprises et laisse entrevoir les aspects fantastiques de la série plus en détails. Une saga familiale toujours aussi addictive. ( )

Dans ce quatrième opus, après une première partie de transition et de passages de pouvoir, la famille Caskey retrouve une nouvelle harmonie.

La seconde guerre mondiale arrive et les affaires explosent pour la scierie qui voit les commandes affluer.

Un livre plus tranquille, dans lequel toutes et tous semblent trouver un certain apaisement.

Bien sûr, ce tome reste fidèle aux Blackwater avec quelques drames et morts (étranges ou non), mais où les personnalités peuvent enfin vivre sans se cacher. Enfin… presque ( )

...in which a lot of the seeds planted in the first three books begin to sprout and grow.

I'm enjoying this soap opera so much more than I ever thought I would. ( )

War is kind to them
wealth, spouses, kissing cousins
all taken in stride. ( )

The fourth book in this series is just as good as the others. (Though so far the first one holds the best book in the series spot.)

It's hard to review a book from a series without spoiling anything, but suffice it to say, that I'm very late for a group read and I co-moderate that group! I'm also late on a couple of read to reviews. So this means, I have to set this series aside for a brief time while I fulfill my other reading obligations.

I'm not happy about that. This type of story, written the way McDowell has written it...it's impossible not to think about. The family is written as such that I think I know them better than I know my own family. I feel connected to them. I love some of them and hate others, but I feel connected just the same. It turns out that one of the family members is gay and this passage explained how that went over in the small Alabama town of Perdido. (*This passage is very slightly spoiler-ish*):

"Southerners are an easygoing race when it comes to aberrations of conduct. They will react with anger if something out of the ordinary is presented as a possible future occurrence; but if an unusual circumstance is discovered to be an established fact, they will usually accept it without rancor or judgment as part of the normal order of things. To have informed the men who hung about the seed and feed stores that two women had bought Gavin Pond and were turning it into the biggest farm in the county would have brought out calls to repeal the voting rights amendment; but when confronted with Grace the men were perfectly willing to accept her, her cousin Lucille , and Lucille's little boy."

So, all that doesn't tell you much, but that's all I can say without spoilers. There is still a deep mystery hidden within Elinor and within the town of Perdido and its river, and I can't wait to find out what it is. But I have to.

Recommended for fans of 80's horror, soap operas, mysteries ( )