Reader's Favorite 5 Star Review

Guess I wasn't done with the self-promtion after all.  But who could resist sharing such a wonderful review?  Not me, that's for sure . . . besides, I had to have a reason to display the awesome badge!

Book Review

Reviewed by Lee Ashford for Readers' Favorite

Stutter Creek by Ann Swann is a romance, brilliantly hidden within a suspense-filled tale of a psychotic, sociopath serial killer with a chip on his shoulder. It is also a classic tale of young love lost, and a life of regrettable what-ifs. Beth Evans is recently divorced, her husband having traded her in on a younger model. Her daughter, Abby, eloped and moved to Italy. Then, her father – the only parent she had ever known – died. Beth Evans had no one left to lean on. Needing to get away by herself for a while, Beth decided to revisit her father’s old cabin in the woods; well, HER cabin in the woods, now. Some of her best memories were tied to that cabin. One particular memory, which she liked to embellish a bit, was of the summer she was 14, and had met “Big John,” an 18-year-old, sun-tanned Adonis who was staying at a nearby cabin that year. She had often wished she were closer to Big John’s age; she had wanted him to think of her as a young woman, rather than a pesky little kid. In spite of all her many visits to the cabin, she had never again seen Big John.

Meanwhile, sociopath Kurt Graham was released from prison after serving five years. Kurt had hatched a plan while in prison: he was going to kill five young women who resembled the prosecutor who had gotten him imprisoned, one for each year of his life she had taken from him. Then he was going to let her know what he had done, so she would live in horror the rest of her life. Over the course of five years, he had considered and reconsidered every aspect of his plan, and he was certain it was now a fail-safe plan. Stutter Creek will grab you on page one, and not let you go until several hours have passed, and you finally read “The End.” Ann Swann has published several stories, in the romance genre as well as the supernatural. She has won numerous awards for her short stories. I will be surprised if she doesn’t win an award or two for Stutter Creek; this is one expertly crafted story, and one I recommend most enthusiastically.