Some Welcome Home

Elizabeth Pepperhawk & Avivah Rosen Mystery #1

by Sharon Wildwind

Captain Elizabeth Pepperhawk survived Vietnam, but will she survive Fort Bragg? Whoever dressed a body in a World War II uniform and put it in her bed in the Transient Officers Quarters wants to shorten not only her career, but her life. The Army's Criminal Investigation Division identifies the victim as Dermid Hagan. According to Army records, Specialist Hagan died in a traffic accident in Saigon, two years earlier. Pepper becomes friends with her neighbors, Avivah Rosen, a military police captain, and Benny Kirkpatrick, a green beret. They all have problems with the Army. Pepper has a drinking problem acquired in Vietnam. Avivah's repeated requests for a position in Southeast Asia have been turned down because she's female. Benny loves a woman whose husband is missing in action. The three friends band together to help one another survive and to investigate the murder. They soon discover that Womack Army Hospital holds more than one secret . . . When Pepper persists in asking too many questions in the wrong places, she places several people in danger. As the investigation spins out of control, and with Pepper's life at stake, Benny and Avivah must work together to catch a determined, cold-blooded killer who has Pepper in his sights. Sharon Wildwind, a native of Louisiana, is a former Army nurse. Sharon is now a Certified Gerontological Nurse, working with the elderly. She spends her time orbiting between her computer and quilting table because the colors and patterns help produce the words and vice versa. She also teaches mystery appreciation workshops and, through memoir writing, encourages older women to write the true stories of their lives.

Genres: Mystery

376 pages, Paperback

First published February 21, 2005

About the author

Sharon is The Calgary Mystery Lady. Originally from the southern United States, she came to Canada a long time ago. As a child, she read adventure stories, science fiction, and mysteries, and knew more about bush pilots than she did about social graces. It took her a while to realize that the guys always got the best adventures and the best lines, a situation she set out to remedy by making up her own stories.

After a couple of real life adventures—one involving being in the U.S. Army and one working in public health in northern Alberta—she realized it was easier to write about adventurous women than be one. Her Vietnam veterans series takes place in the early 1970s. For her three veterans—two women and one man—returning to civilian life is murder. She is also working on an as-yet-unsold series about an American woman who moves to northern Alberta looking for adventure, and boy, does she find it. Waiting in the wings is a stand-alone about a flight nurse, who has to prove she didn’t kill her patient before the police prove that she did.

Sharon also teaches writing and memoir workshops and has a burning ambition to help writers stop using their word processor like a typewriter.

Series:
* Elizabeth Pepperhawk & Avivah Rosen Mystery

Reviews

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Captain Elizabeth Pepperhawk (known as Pepper) has just returned from a year serving as a nurse in Vietnam. It is the early 70s and that war is still going on. Newly assigned to Fort Bragg, she finds a dead body in the bed of her hotel. This is at the very beginning, the first page of Chapter 1.
A lot of military goings on. A lot of murder investigation happenings. Pepper knows nobody at first. Her new job is head nurse on a military orthopedic ward.
One of the investigating officers is a woman captain of the military police, Avivah Rosen. She and Green Beret Benny Kirkpatrick become Pepper's friends and help her through the transition from war to more-or-less peace. But still military.
So far as I know a unique setting and personnel for a mystery series. I found it truly interesting because Pepper is my age, and could have been me or somebody I knew in high school. A Southerner, we have that in common too. She's a Catholic and I grew up in a mostly Catholic town.
Very interesting. Highly recommended. The author was herself an Army nurse in Vietnam so she knows the situations both there and stateside. This is the first of a series of five books.

[Cathy Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author Sharon Wildwind is a former Army nurse who served in Vietnam as well as Fort Bragg. She's writing what she knows, and that knowledge glows on the page. Some Welcome Home does an excellent job of showing military personnel adjusting to life stateside, and it also takes a good look inside the military police, nursing, and the prevailing attitude in 1971 toward women in the military.

Besides that insider knowledge, another strength of this book is its three main characters. Pepper is a good nurse, but doubts herself too much and has a tendency to sink into a bottle if things go wrong. Benny has fallen in love with a woman whose husband is missing in action. Avivah is one sharp investigator and a good soldier; however, her repeated requests to serve in Vietnam are always turned down.

Wildwind's mystery is excellent and extremely difficult to solve. If I found any weakness at all in this book it was in the action scenes. They weren't quite up to the standard of the rest of the book; however, that's a small complaint. The setting, the characters, and the story all make me want to read the next book in the series as quickly as possible.

[Cathy Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, I wanted to read this book because Sharon Wildwind is a fellow Calgarian mystery writer. Yeah! It's about time that Canadian mystery writers got known.

I enjoyed the book a lot. The Vietnam war army nurse angle is brand new and, aside from the mystery story itself, I was curious to read what it's like to be an army nurse, plus the Vietnam war experience. I think that there are a lot of baby-boomers who will feel the same way.

I thought the three major characters, Pepper, Avivah, and Benny were well-written, Benny particularly being larger than life, and they can certainly support a series. The story was well-paced and kept ahead of me all the time - I didn't have a clue who the murderer was. It was also interesting how the narrative voice changed back and forth between Pepper and Avivah.

If I had any criticism, it would be that there were a lot of characters in the story and I had a bit of trouble keeping everyone straight.

Well done! I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

I chose to buy this book because of good reviews on DorothyL. My husband is a Viet Nam vet and this book, the first in a series, is about an Army nurse who comes back from Viet Nam in the early 1970's. Her new post is Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, and as soon as she walks in to her room in Normandy House, kind of an Army hotel, she finds a dead body in her room. The body is dressed in a WWII uniform.

This book totally dominated my weekend as I let myself drift off to Fort Bragg and enjoy meeting the main characters, Captain Elizabeth "Pepper" Pepperhawk, the returning Army nurse and Captain Avivah Rosen, a Jewish military policewoman. After finishing it I immediately wanted the next in the series. I believe there will be a total of 5 books when Sharon Wildwind finishes this series. I only hope the rest will be as good as Some Welcome Home. This book will definitely be in the Top Ten of 2009.

[Moira Kloster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in the 1970s - nurse returns from military duty in Vietnam to a military hospital at home, only to get caught up in a murder. Ticks along nicely, with engaging characters and nicely vivid accounts of military culture and of small-town southern ways.

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

08/06/05 #135
TITLE/AUTHOR: SOME WELCOME HOME by Sharon Wildwind
RATING: 4/B
GENRE/PUB DATE/# OF PGS: Mystery, 2005, 374 pgs

[Leslie Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Loved the characters and the story was compelling. It flowed nicely and I would read more by this author. Good job Sharon!