Mountain Mists

By: Dr. Sue Clifton

Narrated by: Kathleen Miranti

Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

Dr. Sue Ann Parrish, cherished by two men in her life only to lose both, has remained alone until she admits to loving Custer, the mountain dweller who befriended her in her sorrow and sees her through her greatest challenge, breast cancer. As she fights for her life, her daughter Betsy becomes a ghostwriter for her mother’s autobiography and thus learns the truth about her father.

When ghosts from the past arrive and turn her world upside-down, Sue Ann must make a life-changing decision: stay with Custer or marry a man she thought lost to her years before. Dressed in an antique lace dress once worn by a pioneer woman, Sue Ann walks down the aisle, her eyes smiling at the two men waiting. Whose hand will she take? The Beartooth Mountains cast shadows of approval as a raven and an eagle dip their wings symbolically overhead.

©2016 Dr. Sue Clifton (P)2018 Dr. Sue Clifton

Good Story, Uneven Production

This will be a challenging book for me to review – to share my thoughts about. First, there are long-winded opening credits, including the publisher’s website – HTTPs, URLs and all. It was off-putting. There was an explanation about how this is fiction and the author’s dedication.

Finally, after all that, the book began.

The introduction made it clear that this is not the first book in the series and I’m never certain why publishers bring a mid-series book out as the first audio. That being said, Dr. Clifton provides just enough background that I wasn’t lost. These characters have lived rich – and even harrowing – lives before settling into what they assumed would be quiet times.

But who wants boring?

The book had an odd structure. The suspense/thriller portion was in the first half of the story with a complete resolution, leaving me wondering where the narrative was going to go from there.

The revelation of one character’s true identity sent the book in a completely different direction than what I was expecting and I liked that – a lot. I can’t go into detail, unfortunately, or I will be giving away major spoilers, and I don’t want to do that. That having been said, the issues addressed are near and dear to me.

I liked that ‘Casting for Recovery’ featured prominently in the book. It is a program to teach fly-fishing to breast cancer survivors. I also enjoyed the mixing of the Native American mysticism and spirituality with more modern conveniences. A cabin in the woods sound great until you realize there’s no power, you have to haul water, and it’s freezing in the morning when you have to go to the outhouse.

All those were things I enjoyed. (Things in the book, not the outhouse in the freezing morning.)

There were, however, a few problems.

I mentioned the extensive information at the front – I prefer to be plopped right into the story. There were also continuously shifting points of view. This might have worked if the narrator hadn’t plowed through the book. In physical books, there are double spaces. They may not always highlight a change in the point-of-view, but they are usually there to denote a change of scene. Even if somehow they aren’t (which I doubt), there should be some kind of break between the scenes. Kathleen Miranti barely took a breath, and suddenly we were in the next scene. I spent a lot of time trying to orient myself. Otherwise, her narration was fine.

Finally, I am confused. This is repeatedly called a work of fiction written by Dr. Sue Clifton. Fine. But one of her major characters is a romance writer named Dr. Sue Ann. I’m sorry, but, really? Thousands of women’s names and she picks the same one? It is either a subliminal message I’m missing, the author is trying to ‘come out’ as a romance writer, or she just wanted the reader/listener confused.

Maybe I’m just overthinking it.

Finally, Dr. Sue Ann’s Custer has some advice to a young man. “Follow your heart,” and “don’t play games with life or life will come back and kick you in the ass.”

Words to live by.

I’ll give a 3.5, rounded up to a 4, because I really liked some elements and although the production issues were irritating, in the end, I understood and enjoyed the book.