Winter Journey by Diane Armstrong
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A reading challenge addict – that’s ME! These days I try to fit books from my insurmountable TBR into reading challenges but this time, I wanted to fit an Australian author into a non-Australian setting. That was a terrible exercise as it means I’ve added at least a dozen books to my TBR! However, it has also led to some amazing discovery which included this book, Winter Journey.
It was slow to begin as the first 20% of the audiobook had to set up a lot of background for the main character, Halina Shore. Then, there were Sydney cases she was involved in and certain incidents to happen before she was rather driven to go overseas. However, once she reached Poland, I couldn’t stop listening (even to my son’s complaints in the car, I did not stop the audiobook). It wasn’t that it was a hard mystery to solve but I have rather enjoyed the story telling (good narrator helps) and couldn’t wait for the discovery by the character.
I had to take away a star because of some sexual content… not because the content itself but I just thought it was rather gratuitous and took away from the punch of the horrifying events. If the concern was to take away some bitterness, I felt that this could have been done in another way. Also, there seems to be the confusing issue about the character’s age; supposedly in her 40s but according to time settings etc, she really should be in her 60s? (I’m not the only one to notice this either, review
I was a fan of Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta and Kathy Reichs’ Temperance Brennan so the mention of a forensic dentist appealed to me as I’m a mystery buff. Combined with a historical forensic investigation and a self-discovery journey, this book was powerful & heartbreaking! It did not shy away from the terrible things of the Holocaust and I didn’t expect this part of it; this really shook me.
Tien's Blurb 