Fallen Leaf new mystery from Julie Cosgrove

Fallen Leaf, book 2 of the Relatively Speaking series

Julie B Cosgrove

Inspirational mystery

Write Integrity press

May, 2019

$2.99 ebook

$15.99 paperback

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About the Book

A DNA shocker.

Can Jessica prove the father she’s never known is innocent of a thirty-year-old murder?

It must be a mistake. When a DNA kit reveals the blond, blue-eyed Jessica Warren is half Cherokee, she confronts her adoptive parents who have always been tight-lipped about the circumstances surrounding her infancy. Reluctantly, they hand over her adoption certificate along with a letter written long ago by her biological mother about her father — in prison on a murder charge!

Jessica and her best friends, Bailey and Shannon, head for Oklahoma to locate her birth mother, seek the truth about her heritage, and discern if her father is as innocent as he claims. In the process of trying to prove he was wrongly imprisoned, the three women uncover a thirty-year-old mystery some powerful people never wanted revealed. Can Jessica trust a handsome, young district attorney from Tulsa to help her discern the truth, or does he have an agenda of his own?

As Jessica chases down the past and digs into the real reason she was put up for adoption, she soon learns the sins of the fathers really can be visited upon their children, just as the Bible states.

The father she’s never met wants Jessica to prove his innocence.

My Review

Three friends decide to research their family heritage through the popular DNA kits sold through genealogy research sites. Cosgrove’s Relatively Speaking stories are interlinked, but stand alone. Fallen Leaf is the second and focuses on Jessica, a woman who was adopted and learns she is half Cherokee, much to her surprise. With today’s internet search engines, and the help of her parents, it doesn’t take long to find her birth parents, who thirty years later have new lives. Jessica’s mother, Megan, has married her father’s best friend, and Jessica’s father is incarcerated for murder. Not exactly the dreamy story a young lady would like to hear.

As a single, divorced journalist who makes a living free-lance writing, Jessica decides, after meeting both parents in their new settings, to delve into the devastating event that changed everyone’s lives. With her friends Bailey and Shannon for support, she heads up to Oklahoma to meet the parents. A couple of days turns into a week in Oklahoma that promises to shift her world after a prison encounter with her birth father sets the friends into a whirlwind of discovery to unleash the truth of a thirty-year-old murder which was based on lies and still has the power to destroy.

A series of potential leads all come and go with the help of the hunky very young Oklahoma DA, Grady Collins, who is a friend of Bailey’s beau, Texan Detective Chase Montgomery. When things start to tie up too neatly, budding romance too good to be true, and an ordered car ride gone very wrong, it appears the DA has ulterior motives for assisting Jessica in clearing her father’s name. In a twist of memories and illusive facts and the help of modern forensic science, the crime may be solved, but its effects remain and change Jessica’s life. Once suspicious of men as a result of her disappointingly short marriage, Jessica learns the value of deep friendship and that not all men are unfaithful.

Billed as a cozy mystery, this faith-filled story will please those who enjoy a little toothy inspirational tale set in the real world of terrifying crime and racial injustice. It’s clean language with some illusion to horrific acts rings true and doesn’t cross lines between good story and decency. As with all of Cosgrove’s story, faith is the ground layer, but supports the characters, not driving them. Recommended for mystery readers junior high on up.

About the Author

Freelance writer, award-winning traditionally published author and speaker Julie B Cosgrove leads retreats, workshops, and Bible studies. She writes regularly for several Christian websites and publications and is a digital Missionary for Campus Crusades for Christ Canada's The Life Project managing over 25 devotional writers. Julie has one grown son and lives in Fort Worth, Texas. Visit her website at www.juliebcosgrove.com or her blog: WhereDidYouFindGodToday.com.