Soldier on the Porch: An Elizabeth Pepperhawk/Avivah Rosen Mystery

by Sharon Wildwind

After a bomb destroys part of the Pisgah Mountain Veterans Administration Hospital, two bodies - one of them Avivah's former commander in Vietnam - are found in the ruins. If Avivah doesn't tell her... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1594145946
• ISBN13: 9781594145940
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Five Star (ME)
• Length: 357 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.8" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

Delightful

Soldier on the Porch by Sharon Wildwind is a delightful third mystery in the Elizabeth Pepperhawk/Avivah Rosen mystery series. Using a skillful combination of outright statement and suggestion, Wildwind brings us into what for some of us is an alien world, the world of the Viet Nam vet. She grounds us in the veterans' concerns and enables us to see the issues that faced many of them, while keeping us caught up in a bona fide mystery. Wildwind, a former Viet Nam nurse, knows what she's talking about, and that knowledge comes through clearly in her writing. Like its predecessors, Soldier on the Porch offers a convoluted plot and enough characters to keep the reader guessing to the very end. If you haven't read the first two books in the series, you'll want to get them to bring yourself up to date on the lives and loves of Wildwind's all-too-human and lovable characters.

Best Pepperhawk Mystery Yet

I won't summarize the plot of "Soldier on the Porch," because two other reviewers have covered that ground better than I could (I'd either write too much or too little); I'm just going to say why I enjoyed the book. For one thing, I saw a side of Elizabeth Pepperhawk's personality I'd not seen before. (Either it wasn't evident in "First Murder in Advent," or I missed it, and I haven't read "Some Welcome Home.") In many ways, even though she's in a career-threatening situation in "Soldier," Pepper strikes me as more relaxed, less intense in this book. (Not languid, day-at-the-beach, no-cares-in-the-world relaxed, by any means, just more three-dimensional, I guess.) Her irreverent sense of humor comes through, as well as a large dose of chutzpah (strength with style, as opposed to just gritty toughness). For that matter, development and growth for all the main characters--Avivah, Benny, Darby and Loraine--is what I liked best about this book. That, and the seamless way Wildwind has woven together the individual, yet interdependent, stories of Pepper's trouble at work (and what that means to her surprisingly fragile sense of security), Avivah's not-so-distant past coming back to haunt her, and Benny's relationship with Loraine and her sons, and given us a mystery to solve, to boot. Reflecting on this book--and this series--I've decided that the Viet Nam War was a little like alcoholism. I've had the sad experience of loving or simply knowing a number of alcoholics whose years of drinking so damaged their bodies that even years of sobriety couldn't repair them. It strikes me that serving in the Viet Nam War had a similar effect on the psyche, to varying degrees. Wildwind's gift to readers is illustrating that point without cloaking it in bitterness and antagonism, rather, hiding it in plain view throughout her engaging mysteries. Readers also don't want to miss "Dreams That Blister Sleep," Wildwind's non-fiction account of her experience as an Army nurse in Viet Nam. In addition to having one of the most creatively "right on" titles in publishing history (my opinion, but don't you agree?), "Dreams That Blister Sleep," available via the author, grabs hold of you from the start and doesn't let go. Even considering the subject, the hardest part about reading the book was putting it down to attend to everyday life.

Very Real, Psychologically Complex Characters

Sharon Wildwind's first mystery (Some Welcome Home) captured my imagination and made me want to know more about the protagonists, Elizabeth Pepperhawk and Avivah Rosen. The series is unique in that it features women who have served in Viet Nam, as Wildwind herself did. Her books portrays both the disturbing aspects of war and the camaraderie that can develop between those who serve. In Wildwind's second mystery, First Murder in Advent (set in 1972), Army nurse Pepperhawk is between assignments when she receives a call from Benny Kirkpatrick, ex-Special Forces first sergeant. Their friend Avivah is in trouble, and with Benny and Avivah's friend, has sought refuge in a convent in the mountains of North Carolina. When Pepper goes to help, she finds military intelligence officer Darby Baxter, her on-again, off-again love interest, with three other men. What follows are days without electricity in a mostly empty convent, in a snowstorm. Avivah, Pepper, Darby and Benny, along with a few nuns and some members of a paramilitary think tank, struggle to survive the cold amidst murder, secret passageways and lost wills--delicious reading with tangling sub-plots. Pepper confronts her childhood experience of Catholicism, while Avivah must contend with the nuns' suspicions of her Judaism. Our heroes all survive. although some of the other characters do not. In the third book, Soldier on the Porch (set in 1973), Pepper is now a civilian nurse and Avivah works with a security team for a Veterans Administration hospital in North Carolina. They live on a rural, mountain homestead with two houses. They are living in one while Benny, his friend Loraine, and her two sons live in the other. The story opens with a bang (actually an explosion) and Pepper throwing herself on top of a patient to protect him from falling beams. Because she had been called in to work at the last moment and had had a drink of wine with dinner, she finds herself facing disciplinary action and counseling. One of the two men killed in the explosion had been Avivah's senior officer in Viet Nam, a man who was also under investigation by the FBI and military intelligence officer Lieutenant Colonel Darby Baxterin. Someone is trying to kill Avivah or Pepper. But which one? And why? For a third time, these three ex-soldiers find themselves with a murder or two on their hands. Once again, the sub-plots twist and turn, jolting the reader with surprise after unexpected surprise. Wildwind draws very real, psychologically complex characters. In the end, she tucks most of the loose threads into the narrative fabric, although there seems to be a hint of more story to come. If you enjoy being held in believable suspense by a fine writer, try Sharon Wildwind's mystery series. _____________________________ Sharon Wildwind served in Vietnam as a U.S. Army nurse. A Canadian, she is married to a military historian. by Judith Helburn for StorycircleBookReviews www.storycirclebookreviews.org reviewin

exhilarating 1970s military veterans mystery

In 1973 at the Pisgah Mountain VA Hospital in Ashville, North Carolina, an explosion rips into an abandoned wing. Security guard Avivah Rosen investigates the ruins. Two corpses are found; one is nonagenarian patient Zeb Blackenship who went out for a smoke and the other is Major Henry Campos, Avivah's nasty former superior in Viet Nam. Meanwhile Avivah's friend nurse Elizabeth Pepperhawk knows the rules, but showed up for work somewhat intoxicated; she is forced to join a counseling program. Thier other friend Benny Kirkpatrick is too busy with school and babysitting to assist either female. The FBI Agent Harrington and Military Intelligence Officer Darby Baxter take Avivah into custody to protect her from a serial killer. Besides Campos, three other officers from that cell of five are dead; she is the last one standing. However, not one to sit around, Avivah sneaks out with the help of newspaper reporter Saul Eisenberg as she begins an inquiry into who wants them dead; she already knows why. The latest 1970s military veterans Pepperhawk/Rosen mystery (see SOME WELCOME HOME and FIRST MURDER IN ADVENT) is an exhilarating thriller that focuses mostly on what happened in Viet Nam that Avivah has hidden. This time Ben is a minor player unable to come to the rescue of his two female friends and Elizabeth is tied up with an alcohol issue. This leaves Avivah going alone (she enlists Saul) to fix the mess as her choices seem to be going to jail or learning of more murders until she becomes a corpse. Historical mystery fans will enjoy this strong investigative tale that remains relevant as the then hot Cold War Against Communism is now the hot cold War Against Terrorism. Harriet Klausner