AUTHOR: Kimberley Woodhouse
DATE: 2023
PUBLISHER: Bethany House
STARS: *****
From the back cover:
Some secrets can only stay buried for so long. . . .
Anna Lakeman has spent her life working alongside her paleontologist father, drawing intricate sketches at every dig. When they find dinosaur bones near their home in Wyoming Territory, they're given the opportunity of a lifetime and are swiftly caught up in the competitive era of the Bone Wars. But after her father becomes sick and Joshua Ziegler, an old beau, returns for the summer, Anna's world is upended, and the practical, orderly life she has made for herself shatters.
Medical student Joshua Ziegler left his hometown to forget Anna, the one woman he truly loved and deeply hurt. But when he returns, time hasn't erased the feelings they've always had for each other. After Joshua's nephew goes missing--just like his sister did years ago--and Anna's job is threatened, tensions mount and dangerous secrets are unearthed.
My review:
The Secrets Beneath surprised me – many times. I had expected a simple historical fiction story, with interesting characters and evidence of great research, but the depth of mystery, intriguing and sometimes frustrating characters and a mass of fabulous education will stay with me for a long, long time.
I knew nothing of the Bone Wars and very little of paleontology, so that information alone amazed me. Add in a lost child, medical trauma, mysterious disappearances and two people whose love is sidelined by tempers and misunderstandings, and you have a keep-the-pages-turning story.
The Secrets Beneath kept me captivated from beginning to the end, and it earned five stars. I was given a copy of this book by Baker Publishing Ltd. and Graf Martin Communications.