The Alone Time by Elle Marr ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

For two sisters, confronting the past could come at a terrible price in a riveting novel about a family tragedy—and family secrets.

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May 2024; Thomas & Mercer; 978-1662513817
audio, ebook, print (319 pages); psychological thriller

This well-told psychological suspense story started off slow but picked up speed quickly.  It's told in alternating chapters by the two sisters and the parents.  The two sisters' chapters go between the present day and the day of the plane crash but we only have chapters from the parents during and immediately after the crash.

Twenty-five years before the beginning of the novel, Fiona and Violet Seng were in a plane crash with their parents in a small Cessna. The plane crashed in the middle of nowhere in the Washington State wilderness and the parents were killed.  The two young girls fended for themselves for twelve weeks before they were rescued.  This 12-week period is what they refer to in later years as the alone time. Now they are grown but the trauma of the crash still affects each of them.  Fiona lives a very solitary life and is an artist who re-purposes leaves, feathers, and other natural items into artwork.  Violet has led a life of addiction and bad boyfriends but is now back in college hoping to become a writer.  They work very hard to keep the story of the crash quiet but when they find out that someone is planning a documentary about it, they realize that they need to find a way that their version of the truth of the accident stays the way it has been for all of those years...but it seems that there is new information that is causing their version of what happened to look like a lie. After being estranged from each other for several years, the two sisters realize that they need to work together to keep the real truth from being exposed.  They've never really talked to each other about their 'alone time' but now is the time to find out what really happened to them and their parents.  The truth of what really happened comes out slowly as the two sisters begin to remember things about that time and there are several surprises along the way.  What is the real truth??

This book was a roller coaster ride that got bogged down in the middle but in the last 25% picked up speed again to a satisfying ending.  I plan to check out some of the author's previous books that are highly reviewed on Goodreads.

Buy The Alone Time at Amazon

Susan Roberts grew up in Michigan but loves the laid-back life at her home in the Piedmont area of North Carolina where she is two hours from the beach to the east and the mountains in the west.  She reads almost anything but her favorite genres are Southern Fiction and Historical Fiction.

 

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