Twenty-Five Years Ago Today in Once Upon a Twilight blog

Jan 08, 2011 Once rated it really liked it

25 Years Ago Today is a murder mystery with a splash of romance and a surprise ending. Stacy Juba does a wonderful job giving you just enough details through the book to keep you guessing all the way to the end. This is what I totally love about murder mystery novels. It was a little slow in the beginning and then it picked up and I couldn’t put it down.
Kris Langley is an aspiring writer with a troubled past. Kris’s cousin Nicole was kidnapped and murdered when they were just little girls. Kris ...more

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Mar 09, 2013 Darlene rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: for-review, audiobook

This was a great mystery that kept me guessing right up to the end!

Kris Langley is a young editorial assistant, who works for the Freemont Daily News in Massachusetts. In addition to typing up obituaries and birth announcements, she scopes out interesting historical tidbits from the paper’s microfilms for the “Twenty-Five Years Ago Today” feature. She comes across an unsolved murder of a young woman named Diana Ferguson, whose body was found bludgeoned to death in the Freemont State Woods. Tort This was a great mystery that kept me guessing right up to the end!

Kris Langley is a young editorial assistant, who works for the Freemont Daily News in Massachusetts. In addition to typing up obituaries and birth announcements, she scopes out interesting historical tidbits from the paper’s microfilms for the “Twenty-Five Years Ago Today” feature. She comes across an unsolved murder of a young woman named Diana Ferguson, whose body was found bludgeoned to death in the Freemont State Woods. Tortured by guilt in connection with her own cousin’s murder when she was just 12 years old, Kris is driven to solve this cold case and she contacts the family as well as the police in an effort to piece together the circumstances that led up to the crime.

Kris is a great character, and I couldn’t help but feel sympathetic towards her. She is wracked with guilt over the death of her cousin, and she has never been the same since. When she contacts Diana Ferguson’s family, she is very compassionate and wants nothing more than to bring closure to the family and give them the peace that they so richly deserve. The many years of not knowing the who or why of the crime has tormented Diana’s mother, Irene, and Kris yearns to give her the finality that she needs. At first, Diana’s nephew, Eric, is angry at Kris for stirring things up and causing his grandmother to become hopeful again. He worries that she will be crushed when Kris’ digging will lead to what he believes will be more frustration and unanswered questions. As time goes on, Eric sees that Kris really does want to help and isn’t just doing this for the sake of making the headlines. There is a lot of chemistry between Kris and Eric, but their relationship progresses too quickly and complicates matters.

Juba is a new-to-me author, and she delivered a story that held my interest and made me analyze the evidence to try to figure out who did it. The ending blind-sided me, and I love it when an author can catch me off-guard like that!

Narrator Erin Moon is also new to me, and she did a pretty good job. There were a few awkward moments when she appears to nearly stumble over the words but catches herself and the result is a small pause in the narration. However, her pacing was good overall, and the slight inflections in her voice made each character distinctive.

I received this audiobook from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive any compensation for my review, and the views expressed herein are my own. ...more

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