Book Review~A Cry From The Dust

About A Cry From The Dust: (from the publisher)
A secret from a grim page of American history threatens to destroy thousands of lives.

Gwen Marcey was tops in her forensic field. Then cancer struck, her husband left, and her teenage daughter engaged in active rebellion. Gwen's best chance to start a new life was a temporary job in Utah reconstructing faces from an 1857 massacre site.

The Mountain Meadows Interpretative Center asked Gwen to reconstruct the faces of three intact bodies that were discovered from the wagon train massacre of more than 120 people by Mormon fanatics calling themselves Avenging Angels. But just as she is nearing completion on her reconstructions, things around the center turn deadly.

Gwen discovers the ritualized murder of a young college student with a stolen identity and is called on by the local police to use her forensic art skills to aid the investigation. Soon she discovers an uncanny resemblance between one of her reconstructions and the death mask of Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon church. And realizes that she's the next target of the recreated Avenging Angels who believe she has an icon from the grave.

Gwen must weave through a labyrinth of Mormon history, discovering secret societies and festering grudges in a race against time.

Will she be able to stop another massacre?

About the Author:
Carrie Stuart Parks is an award-winning fine artist and internationally known forensic artist. She teaches forensic art courses to law enforcement professionals and is the author/illustrator of numerous books on drawing. Carrie began to write fiction while battling breast cancer and was mentored by New York Times bestselling author Frank Peretti. Now in remission, she continues to encourage other women struggling with cancer. 

What I Thought: My family moved to Utah 12 years ago.  I knew nothing about the history of the state and its people, so I investigated quite a bit.  I was immediately intrigued, and one of the stories that fascinated me the most was the Mountain Meadows Massacre.  So, when I read the description of A Cry From The Dust, I couldn't get my hands on it fast enough!

I am so impressed with author Carrie Stuart Parks' writing talent!  This book pulled me in immediately and was fast-paced, full of twists and turns.  The main character, Gwen Marcey, had a job that I found fascinating-she is a forensic artist.  I immediately felt for her-here she is recovering from cancer, lost her husband, and her teenage daughter is rebelling.  Then she gets pulled into this craziness in Utah, and is afraid for her life!  A Cry From The Dust was hard to put down, and kept me on the edge of my seat to the very end!

Update:  I'm so excited!  I just went to post my review of A Cry From The Dust on Amazon, and noticed that it is labeled as A Gwen Marcey Novel Book 1!!  So, there is  more of this story to come from Carrie Stuart Parks-hurray!!

*Disclosure: I received a copy of this book free from BookLook Bloggers in exchange for my honest review.  All opinions expressed here are my own.