Book Review --- Fallout Author: Carrie Stuart Parks

 

About the Book

Book: Fallout

Author: Carrie Stuart Parks 

Release date: September 13, 2022

Her carefully crafted life is about to be demolished.

After a difficult childhood, Samantha Williams craves simplicity: jigsaw puzzles, lectures at the library, and the students she adores in her role as an elementary school art teacher in the dusty farming community of LaCrosse, Washington.

But when an SUV crashes into the building where she teaches, her entire world is upended. Samantha manages to keep the children safe, but her car isn’t so lucky. Oddly, her purse—with her driver’s license, credit cards, and other identification—is missing from the wreckage.

After authorities discover that the driver in the accident was shot seconds before the crash, Samantha quickly becomes entangled in increasingly strange events that have her constantly looking over her shoulder.

Samantha has long tried to forget the tragedy of her past, but the twisting connections she discovers between the murdered driver, a deadly secret government project, and an abandoned town can't be ignored. Those involved are determined to keep these secrets buried, and they’ll use any means necessary to stop Samantha’s search for truth.

About the Author

Carrie Stuart Parks is an award winning artist, writer, speaker, and law enforcement instructor. A Certified Forensic Artist, she met her husband, Rick, in the romantic hallways of the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. Together they formed a dynamic and successful team in their fine and forensic art, working on major national and international cases and creating exquisite watercolors and stone carvings. They travel internationally, teaching forensic art to a variety of participants: from the Secret Service to the FBI, from large law enforcement agencies to the smallest two-man departments in their one-week classes. They are the largest instructors of forensic art in the world. Carrie has won numerous awards for her innovative teaching methods and general career excellence and is a signature member of the Idaho Watercolor Society.

Carrie's Gwen Marcey series chronicles a forensic artist from Montana and is loosely based on Carrie's forensic cases.She began her fiction writing career while battling breast cancer. Mentored by NY Times bestselling author, Frank Peretti, Carrie's debut novel, along with her subsequent novels, have been met with critical acclaim, including:

2021 Kudos Award Winner: fiction (Relative Silence)

2020 Golden Scroll Winner: mystery/suspense/thriller (Fragments of Fear)

2019 Daphne du Maurier finalist: mainstream mystery suspense (Formula of Deception)

2019 Cascade Award finalist: (Formula of Deception)

2018 Carol Award Winner: mystery/suspense/thriller (Portrait of Vengeance)

2018 Inspy Award Winner: mystery/suspense/thriller (Portrait of Vengeance)

2018 Maxwell Award Winner: Fiction (Portrait of Vengeance)

2018 Wright Award Winner: Fiction (Portrait of Vengeance)

2018 RT Reviews Finalist

2017 Christy Winner: mystery/suspense (When Death Draws Near)

2017 Carol Winner: mystery/suspense (When Death Draws Near)

2017 RT Reviewer's Choice Best Book Awards for 2016 finalist (When Death Draws Near)

2017 Christian Retailing Best Finalist:mystery/suspense (When Death Draws Near)

2017 Inspy Award Finalist (When Death Draws Near)

2016 Idaho Author Awards: winner: mystery/suspense (When Death Draws Near)

2016 INSPY winner: mystery/suspense (The Bones Will Speak)

2016 Christy Award Finalist: suspense/mystery (The Bones Will Speak)

2016 Christian Retailing Best Finalist: mystery/suspense (The Bones Will Speak)

2016 Family Fiction Readers Choice: 15 Best Books of 2015 (The Bones Will Speak)

2016 Idaho Author Awards Finalist: mystery/suspense (The Bones Will Speak)

2015 Carol Award Winner: mystery/suspense/thriller (A Cry From the Dust)

2015 Christy Award finalist: mystery/suspense/thriller (A Cry From the Dust)

2015 Selah Award finalist: mystery/suspense/thriller (A Cry From the Dust)

My Thoughts

Fallout is a suspenseful book that is written by Carrie Stuart Parks. This book starts out with action and does not let up. We see Samantha Williams, who is an art teacher in dusty farming community of LaCrosse, Washington. On one day, she is with her students and hears the SUV approaching and gets all the children to safety. She had practiced various drills with her students in hopes of never having to use them. On this day, everything starts to unfold when the SUV crashes into the school. When they come to sift through the debris, they find out the driver had been shot before the crash. 

Samantha's purse goes missing, only to turn up in the air b&b that she is staying with - but some of her important documents are missing. Samantha has tried to live a boring life and forget her tragic past - but he is then thrust into this investigation. This story was full of so many twists and turns I did not trust a single character. The characters are well developed, and the story line is suspenseful. 

I have not read this author before, but I will be on the lookout for her in the future. Thank you to the author for allowing me to read a copy of this story -- all thoughts are my own.