Searching for Irene by Marlene Bateman -- Review + Guest Post + Giveaway

About the Book

What happened to Irene?

When Anna Coughlin, a modern 1920’s woman, travels to the secluded hills of Virginia to work for wealthy Lawrence Richardson, she discovers that the previous secretary, Irene, has mysteriously disappeared. Upon arriving at the castle-like mansion, Anna finds that Lawrence’s handsome, but antagonistic son, Tyler, wants nothing more than to have her gone. And he isn’t the only one--

Caught up in a maze of intrigue in a tormented and troubled household, Anna sets out to find the truth behind Irene’s disappearance. She is helped—and often hindered—by the temperamental Tyler Richardson, who—despite her best intentions—begins to steal her heart. 

But even as Anna begins to uncover dark secrets, she must continue to hide a significant one of her own. Then, her life is threatened, and Anna is left to wonder if she’ll be able to unravel the mystery before she disappears as mysteriously as the unfortunate Irene-- ​​

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About the Author

Marlene Bateman Sullivan grew up in Utah, and graduated from the University of Utah with a Bachelor's degree in English. She is married to Kelly R. Sullivan and they live in North Salt Lake, Utah with their two dogs and four cats. Marlene has been published extensively in magazines and newspapers and wrote the best-selling romance/suspense novel, Light on Fire Island. She has written three other cozy mysteries; Motive for Murder, A Death in the Family, and Crooked House, as well as the romance, For Sale by Owner.
 
Marlene has also written a number of non-fiction, LDS books:  Latter-day Saint Heroes and Heroines, And There Were Angels Among Them, Visit’s from Beyond the Veil, By the Ministering of Angels, Brigham’s Boys, Heroes of Faith, Gaze into Heaven; Near-death Experiences in Early Church History, and The Magnificent World of Spirits; Eyewitness Accounts of Where We Go When We Die.

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Guest Post:
​Plotting and Structure—A Road Map for Your Writing

When writing, you must know along the way what you’re doing and where you’re going.  Plotting provides a proper structure for your story so you don’t drift aimlessly. Structure also helps you avoid major mistakes, resist the temptation to wander off on tangents, and saves time since you won’t have to go back and make constant corrections as you write. By having a clear understanding of what your plot is, and how to make that work for you, you will have a reliable compass to guide you as you write. 
 
The Three Parts of Plot and Structure
For a plot to be effective, there must be something very specific at stake—something vital.  Ask yourself what the central conflict is—the struggle that’s the basis of plot.  Then ask yourself how to show, rather than tell, why this is so important to the character and how to best make the reader understand, empathize and care about what happens.
 
Part One—The Setup. Here, you introduce the protagonist and have a dramatic event occur that shakes up the protagonist. The beginning of the book is always about the who of the story. Get your protagonist out of the ordinary and into confrontation. You’ll want to hook your reader here and make them care about your lead. At this time, present the story world, including a little about setting, time, and immediate context. Avoid excessive description, just get right into the story. You’ll also want to introduce the opposition at this time. Who or what wants to stop the lead?
 
Every effective beginning needs to do three things.  The chief of these is to get the story going.  The second is to introduce and characterize the protagonist.  The third is to engage the reader’s interest in reading on.  These three jobs are absolutely vital in the first few pages of a novel.  You can hook the reader with a revealing opening, promising something to come.  Don’t explain, just have something a reader can understand immediately just by watching; a parent with a raised hand, a boy swallowing back tears, a middle-aged woman scanning the want ads, etc.
 
Part Two—The Response.  This usually consists of a series of battles between the lead and the opposition.  This is where the protagonist responds to the dramatic event and decides what must be done. This is the start of confrontation—a series of battles between the protagonist and the opposition. This is where subplots blossom, adding complexity to your story.  Here is where you must analyze the stakes and ask yourself what the protagonist will lose if he doesn’t achieve his objective. It must be something that threatens tremendous loss, either physically or emotionally.
 
In the middle, you will deepen character relationships. You broaden the reader’s understanding of a character by giving a highly selective account of his past.  Emphasize two or three things that are significant to your present story.  Important things, not everything. 
 
The protagonist tries to reach his goal in the middle part of the book, but is thwarted by the opposition. In the middle, the writer needs to keep readers caring about what happens. Continue the subplots and toward the end of this section, you can even tie up some of them.  If you want, you can add another level of complication here, such as a hostage who has incriminating evidence against the mob, making it so the mob needs to get that evidence before the cops do. You can also add another character, one that will make the Lead’s life more difficult. It might be a surprise character from the past, or a character who supports the Lead but makes things difficult, or it could be a love interest.
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Part Three—The Climax and Resolution.  Set up the final battle that will wrap things up.  In this part, you will tie up all loose ends. The last pages are critical so take your time, making it the best it can be.  The reader will often judge the book on the ending so it’s critical to come up with good stuff.  Try to leave your reader with a feeling of resonance. The best endings leave a sense of something behind the confines of the book. Ask yourself what the story means in the larger sense and work to present that to your readers.

Review

From page one, Marlene Bateman will capture the attention of her readers with mystery, suspense, and intrigue in her 1920’s novel, Searching for Irene.  This is a delightful light romantic, suspense novel with a bit of a Downton Abbey feel to it that readers will thoroughly enjoy.  Bateman keeps readers on their toes as they wonder what will happen next.  With easy to love characters, a gripping story, and a sweet romance, readers will be enthralled with this exciting new read.
 
Genre: historical, romance, suspense, inspirational
Publisher: Covenant Communications
Publication date: July 1, 2017
Number of pages: 268

A review copy of this book was provided by Covenant Communications.  A review was not required and all views and opinions expressed are my own.

Giveaway

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