A great mystery by the multitalented Gwen Florio, featuring journalist Lola Wicks. This is a mystery that will appeal to readers who love amateur sleuths, journalist protagonists, and a strong backstory that makes Lola a complex character. As a former war correspondent, Lola seems like she'd be hardened and wise to the tragedies of the world. But in this brave and courageous book, we learn that even the strongest can be brought to their knees. I loved how Lola took the teenage subject of her story under her wing--and in the process had to confront her own familial tragedy. One for the ages! Highly recommended.

Great story by Gwen Florio. Really fabulous story, that kept me turning the pages!! A thrilling plot, and characters.

This book kept my interest all the way through,I havenot read anything before by this author but I would on the basis on this book

I very much enjoyed this latest installment in a series I'd not read before. Yes, I read this as a standalone and it was terrific. Lola Wicks is mourning the loss of her husband, she's being harassed (I mean that kindly) by the "aunties" on the reservation, and now she's in Salt Lake City to write an article about adoption. Little does she know that this story is much bigger than she expected because one of the kids-now an adult- has been accused of murder. There are fascinating details about the LDS Church and Florio makes good use of her setting. Lola is flawed but realistic, pugnacious but not obnoxious, and smart. She's the person Trang, the accused, needs to solve the mystery. This is well written and quite informative. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I'm going to look for this series in the future.

The author is a well established American journalist who had covered the Columbine School shootings and the trial of Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh so I anticipated tight writing and a good plot.. I was proved right. This is the 5th in the Lola Wicks series but it is a stand alone.
In the depths of grief after her husband Charlie has been killed by a bomb Lola is not looking after herself or her daughter Margaret and has abandoned her friends and relations and her colleagues at the local paper where she works.
When Jan decides Lola needs to 'pull herself together' before she loses her mind and possibly her daughter into care she gets her a job on a 'fluffy' story of adopted children out in Salt Lake City.
We as readers are immediately alerted to the State of Utah city where the Mormons (Latter Day Saints) are based and find the adopted children are those from foreign countries.
So with a heavy heart Lola heads off only to find that the adopted son Frank she is due to interview has been arrested for the murder of his neighbour Sariah, who is in turn the mother of the girl Frank is now engaged to marry.
Soon the undercurrents of sex, prejudice and jealousy are revealed and Lola, who is herself struggling with pills to keep away her grief finds Salt lake City has an underbelly of addiction and violent crime.
Frank, a star hockey player and the love of his mother's life seems troubled by his own past life in Vietnam from where he was taken by his new American parents when he was 10 years old.
There are lots of twists in the plot and the writing is extremely good. Journalistic investigation is unwound as Lola finds the whole case gives her meaning to life without Charlie. Is her new boss Munro a help or more likely a hindrance?
Great characters and the descriptions of the world of Mormons and the life she leads as part of Native Indian reservation are intriguing and add to the whole dynamic of the book. I'd be keen to read others by this author.

Former foreign correspondent and now resident of Montana, Lolo Wicks is suffering from a deep depression after the death of her husband Charlie. She is taking pills to help her sleep, ignoring her responsibilities to her job, and ignoring her eight-year-old daughter. It takes the threat of having her child removed from her care and the intervention of the aunties - Charlie's relatives from the reservation - to begin her road to recovery.

Lola is sent to Salt Lake City to do what she considers a puff piece on the topic of adoption among the members of the Church of the Latter Day Saints -- the Mormons. Lola couldn't be less interested but it does get her away from the social worker who wants to meet with her. She learns when she arrives that the family she had come to interview was in the middle of a tragedy. Frank Shumway, adopted as a ten-year-old from Viet Nam and now an eighteen-year-old hockey star, is accused of killing the mother of his fiance, Sariah Ballard.

The Shumways and the Ballards were life-long best friends and next door neighbors. Frank, known by his friends as by his original name of Trang, and the Ballard kids - Kwesi who was adopted from Ghana and Tynslee - were all friends. Another friend is Malachi who is the son of the Donovan Munro, the editor who has sent her out on this story.

Gradually, Lola gets sucked into the drama surrounding the mystery. Tynslee is sure that Trang didn't kill her mother. The more she investigates, the more she learns that places his guilt in question. A lot of the mystery centers around what the Saints believe and the lifestyle they live. When Sariah's body is discovered by Bryce Shumway, his first call is to his Bishop instead of to the police. Lola is appalled at how the crime scene evidence is so compromised by the Elders tromping through the scene before the police are called. The Shumways are slow to get Trang a lawyer, also on the advice of the Elders.

Competing for front page news on the murder is the latest ruling from the church about a total lack of acceptance for gays and a total intolerance for sex among unmarried people. Tynslee and Trang have trashed their chances for a Temple wedding and Trang can no longer go on his mission trip because they are no longer "pure." Since Trang's trip was supposed to take him back to Viet Nam to find out what happened to the sister he had to leave behind, the kids were conspiring to raise the money to sent him to Viet Nam anyway.

The story filled with secrets that someone would and did kill to keep. As Lola unravels the mystery and becomes engaged in the story, she begins to recover from her profound grief at the loss of her husband. She manages to take some baby steps along the road to recovery.

This was a well-written mystery with remarkably engaging characters. While I was uncomfortable with the concept that Lola's depression was so deep that she was neglecting her child, I could understand the depth of her grief. I loved her support system in Montana and her final realization that family was a broader concept than she had thought. I am eager, now, to go back and read the earlier books in this series to find out more about Lola.

Lola Wicks has lost her husband to an explosion. Forgetting everything else, her daughter, her job, her friends, she has lost herself in depression and misery.
She is forced to leave her village and pursue a story in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is a story of a successful hockey player. Things change and the hero hockey player is charged with murder.
In Salt Lake the LDS people are led by a Prophet. It has been mandated that anyone with homosexual tendencies would be banned by the Church as a member in good standing.
As Lola tries to solve the crime, she is thrown into a terrifying ordeal of whodunit.
Great read.
5 Srars

When faced with an ultimatum from elders on the reservation, Lola Wicks is desperate to find a job and prove herself worthy as a mother and a member of society. She is handed a small job that will get her back on her feet, but it suddenly turns out much bigger than everyone expected.

This is the first book I have read in the Lola Wicks series, so some parts were hard to follow. The author does a good job of filling in the gaps enough with backstory and character development that the reader isn't confused if they are unfamiliar with the characters. It seems like Lola has seen her share of heartache and tragedy, and I would like to go back and start this series from the beginning.

This story is centered around the issue of international adoption, strict moral codes, and deception in the LDS community. Secrets are uncovered as the investigation progresses, and Lola struggles to make sense of the mess confronting her and figuring out who she can trust. There are plenty of bizarre twists and shocking turns that keep you guessing until the very end. There is some foreshadowing along the way that sets up the conclusion, but nothing is really clear until the last few chapters. Everything is nicely wrapped up in the end, complete with hints of things to come in the next installment.

I would recommend this book to fans of thrillers and suspense. I received this as a free ARC from Midnight Ink Books on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Once again, Florio delivers an outstanding mystery with a heart-pounding ending.

The character Lola Wicks has been felled by the death of a loved one. A white woman who married into a Native American Indian family, Lola has the support of the “aunties”—the women on the reservation who come together, especially in times of crisis. But they, and Lola’s coworker Jan, have decided it’s time that she moves on with her life and takes better care of her eight-year-old daughter, Margarette. It’s a social worker threatening to remove Margarette from Lola’s custody that compels her to take a fluff piece about overseas adoption. Lola leaves her small-town Montana life to go to the comparatively big-town of Salt Lake City in the heart of Mormon country.

Initially, Lola wants to get out of writing the article, but when the teenager at the center of the story is accused of murder, things start to get interesting. Lola can’t help herself, the reporter in her has to follow every lead. The clues even lead her to Vietnam. As with all Florio’s books, the characters are well-drawn and compelling, including the setting as character. Here, Lola tries to adjust to Mormon culture, meaning her beloved caffeine is not on the menu. Alcohol? I don’t think so. Also, Vietnam and its differences, particularly since she doesn’t speak the language.

Lola Wicks is a phenomenally likeable heroine. She eschews dresses and dress shoes. Rather, her closet is filled with gym shoes is various states of disrepair and hiking boots. I love Lola and I love this book.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Midnight Ink for the opportunity to read this book, which RELEASES MARCH 8, 2018.

Lola WIcks is in bad shape after the recent horrible death of her husband and her addiction to pain pills. To straighten her out her boss at the local newspaper sends her to investigate a story in Salt Lake City Utah leaving her young daughter to be taken care of by the elders of the tribe. As soon as she arrives in SLC a murder has occurred which changes the angle of the story she will be investigating. She needs to figure out who is telling the truth, who set up a young adopted vietnamesse man named Frank to take the fall for the murder. Why was Frank so desperate to get back home? What are all the secrets going on in this heavily Mormon neighborhood? Will she fall under the spell of the editor of the newspaper?

Lola Wicks is circling the drain – after years reporting from war zones and now, a family tragedy, her friends are afraid the reporter is about to self destruct. It’s only when she faces the reality that she may have her child taken away that Lola agrees to travel to Salt Lake City to write a story on overseas adoptions. It was supposed to be a quick, feel good piece, but the teen she’s writing about has been accused of murder. Lola is determined to uncover the truth, even though is threatens to unbalance her tenuous grip on reality. This is a dark, gritty read, with a heroine who’s sanity is hanging by a thread. Lola’s situation made me uncomfortable and put me on edge, just the right note for this dark thriller