Arcadia Falls

I have loved Carol Goodman's work since her first book The Lake of Dead Languages came out several years ago. Goodman has kept up the pace, publishing a new novel each year since. And every time I hear there is another book by Goodman coming out, I anxiously await its release.

Arcadia Falls is Goodman's latest book, and I feel this one is a return to her earlier work, with a setting familiar to Goodman's readers.

Meg Rosenthal is a new widowed woman with a teenage daughter, Sally. She is moving to Arcadia Falls where she is lucky enough to have been hired to teach a class on fairy tales that two women who lived together in Arcadia Falls were known for. While teaching there, Meg also plans to do some more research on these two women who are somewhat shrouded in mystery. As Goodman's novels are prone to do, suspense builds as a student's body is discovered after she falls from a ridge in the woods to her death. Rosenthal finds a journal written by one of the women who wrote the fairy tales. And, the death of this woman is now somehow connected to the student's death.

For some, this novel may have been too closely following many elements of her previous work, yet I loved it and never wanted to put it down. The ending to Arcadia Falls throws a little twist in as well, so just when I thought things were resolved, there was a little bit more to come.

I am always amazed by how many people have not read Goodman's books- they are perfect for book clubs and women's fiction readers, and those who love suspense.