Sometimes a Light Surprises

"Sometimes a light is the blinding road-to-Damascus kind, but more often it's a faint glimmer far away but growing steadily brighter." Ben Buckley orders his days the same way he runs his business-carefully structured, compartmentalized, and closely guarded. An unsolved murder from twenty years earlier has cast a dark shadow of anger, guilt, and brokenness over his private life, obscuring any dreams of recovery. For years Ben has distracted himself with the study of word origins, but after the arrival of a new employee, he gradually starts to realize the simple, important words he has left unspoken. Now he must decide whether he has the courage to try to reclaim his family. From a review on the Book Report Network (2006), author and editor Marcia Ford wrote: "Turner's writing is often so elegant, so detailed and so richly textured that her books have distinguished themselves in a category all their own."