Laying Autumn's Dust

<p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Mark L. Brooks hits a homer with this first novel if you love family dynamics how each member plays on each other with the good the bad the </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>most </em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>ugly and how they can arrive victorious. </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Laying Autumn's Dust </em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>is a novel told in three first-person voices. Donny the father-you can feel sorry for him at first-is a man repressed with a low moral compass who can't seem to rise above his worst instincts and doesn't seem to care. He spreads his wounding to wife Abigail who isn't perfect but gives an unfortunate life her best shot. As for son Jesse-how much of Donny will affect him and how much will Abigail's soft resonance of strength steel him?</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>As the family grows and changes you see each developing autonomy as the only answer when Donny's shortcomings become a wedge. More like a backdrop for these highly dimensional characters the plot features murder suicide mystery and vengeance as well as love hope and charity.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>The pace is southern like an evening breeze gently moving Spanish moss on an oak tree in Low Country. Brooks isn't forcing readers to move too fast. But upon reaching the end readers will feel part of this family and akin to the idea that Brooks is looking into us all.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Also at play is Brooks' gift for one-liners: So I sat and watched the leaves fall in the yard and float across the field-and I realized death come in all colors.</span></p><p><br></p><p><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Carol Plum-Ucci Author</em></p><p><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>2x Finalist Edgar Allan Poe Awards</em></p><p><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Winner Michael L. Prinz Honor Book Award. </em></p>