Journal Entry 1 by indygo88 from Lafayette, Indiana USA on Friday, January 21, 2011

"Mia, Laney, Betts, and Ginger, best friends since law school, have reunited for a long weekend as Betts awaits Senate confirmation of her appointment to the Supreme Court. Nicknamed “the Ms. Bradwells” during their first class at the University of Michigan Law School in 1979—when only three women had ever served full Senate terms and none had been appointed to the Court—the four have supported one another through life’s challenges: marriages and divorces, births and deaths, career setbacks and triumphs large and small. Betts was, and still is, the Funny One. Ginger, the Rebel. Laney, the Good Girl. And Mia, the Savant.

But when the Senate hearings uncover a deeply buried skeleton in the friends’ collective closet, the Ms. Bradwells retreat to a summer house on the Chesapeake Bay, where they find themselves reliving a much darker period in their past—one that stirs up secrets they’ve kept for, and from, one another, and could change their lives forever."

Acquired through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program. (cover art different than that shown above)
 

Journal Entry 2 by indygo88 at Lafayette, Indiana USA on Sunday, February 13, 2011

It took some time to emerge myself in this story, but once it got going, I got hooked. The four friends theme is not necessarily anything new, but combined with somewhat of a murder mystery, it presents a new twist. Basically, I really liked this story, but I think if the writing had been tweaked some more, I could have loved it.

I normally don't have a problem with chapters written from alternating character viewpoints. But in this case, it did get a little confusing at times, trying to keep track of whose viewpoint I was reading from. However, the blending of present day & past flashback really did work in this story, and it made the plot gradually come alive, engaging the reader so that he/she really wants to keep reading to find out what actually did happen on that fateful day that Trey Humphrey was found dead from a fatal gunshot wound.

I'm finding that I really enjoy Meg Waite Clayton's plotlines. In this case, I think the writing needed a little refinement to make some things less confusing to the reader, but overall quite an enjoyable book.