I have been anticipating Janyre Tromp‘s debut novel for a long time — it was well worth my wait! Tromp has created a masterful story in Shadows in The Mind’s Eye. Find out all the details below, along with my impressions. There’s a link to a fabulous giveaway at the end of the post — don’t miss it!
Charlotte Anne Mattas longs to turn back the clock. Before her husband, Sam, went to serve his country in the war, he was the man everyone could rely on—responsible, intelligent, and loving. But the person who’s come back to their family farm is very different from the protector Annie remembers. Sam’s experience in the Pacific theater has left him broken in ways no one can understand—but that everyone is learning to fear.
Tongues start wagging after Sam nearly kills his own brother. Now when he claims to have seen men on the mountain when no one else has seen them, Annie isn’t the only one questioning his sanity and her safety. If there were criminals haunting the hills, there should be evidence beyond his claims. Is he really seeing what he says, or is his war-tortured mind conjuring ghosts?
Annie desperately wants to believe her husband. But between his irrational choices and his nightmares leaking into the daytime, she’s terrified he’s going mad. Can she trust God to heal Sam’s mental wounds—or will sticking by him mean keeping her marriage at the cost of her own life?
Debut novelist Janyre Tromp delivers a deliciously eerie, Hitchcockian story filled with love and suspense. Readers of psychological thrillers and historical fiction by Jaime Jo Wright and Sarah Sundin will add Tromp to their favorite authors list.
To read an excerpt of Shadows in the Mind’s Eye, click here.
Janyre Tromp (pronounced Jan-ear) is a historical suspense novelist who loves spinning tales that, at their core, hunt for beauty, even when it isn’t pretty. She’s the author of Shadows in the Mind’s Eye and coauthor of It’s a Wonderful Christmas.
A firm believer in the power of an entertaining story, Tromp is also a book editor and published children’s book author. She lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan with her husband, two kids, two crazy cats, and a slightly eccentric Shetland Sheepdog.
You can find her on Facebook (@JanyreTromp), Instagram (@JaynreTromp), Twitter (@JanyreTromp), and her website, www.JanyreTromp.com where you can download a free copy of her novella, Wide Open.
My Impressions:
Shadows in The Mind’s Eye is a complexly composed post-WWII novel that kept me turning the pages. There is so much to unpack about this book, and I am afraid I will not do it justice. Let me just say it kept me turning the pages while making me stop and ponder. Sounds contradictory? Perhaps. 😉 But I wanted so much to find out what was up and to understand what the characters were going through. The two main characters — Sam and Annie — are finding their way back to each other following Sam’s return from war. Sam returns with lots of demons and Annie has not shed all that she brought into their marriage years before. The relationship aspect of the novel gave it a wonderful intimacy, especially since the novel is told in Sam and Annie’s first person POV. As if that wasn’t enough, Tromp delivered an intensely vivid story with lots of tension and suspense and twists and turns. I never knew who to believe or trust. While Annie and Sam struggled with their relationship and their faith, they had a great example of reliance on the goodness of God in Dovie May, Sam’s mother. Although a secondary character, Dovie May provided a spiritual structure for the rest of the characters. There were also great historical details of Hot Springs, Arkansas in the mid-to-late 1940s that gave the novel a grounded sense of place and time.
Not your ordinary historical novel, Shadows in The Mind’s Eye is a personal glimpse into the struggles of returning WWII servicemen and the impact on family and community. It also is a riveting, suspense-filled story that will keep you up way past your bedtime! 😉
Highly Recommended.
Audience: adults.
(Thanks to Kregel for a complimentary copy. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)
Giveaway!
The prize pack includes:
– A copy of Shadows in the Mind’s Eye,
– A custom made silver peach tree necklace inspired by the book,
– A “Light speaks through the broken places” t-shirt also inspired by the book.
I value your recommendations, and if you say “Highly Recommended” or “Very Highly Recommended”, then I’m going to read it!
😀
Thank you so much for the review, Beckie. I’m glad you enjoyed Sam & Annie’s story.
If you haven’t already, would you consider copying your review on Amazon & GoodReads?
Done! 😀