Kirkus Reviews posted their review of SINS OF THE MOTHER, a Caitlin Bergman novel by August Norman, available September 8, 2020 from Crooked Lane Books.
A Southern Californian journalist searches rural Oregon for her lost mother. Caitlin Bergman knows that working for the LA Voice won’t earn her any Pulitzers. But it gives her the press credentials to travel to Coos County, Oregon, on the pretext of writing a feature on the State of Jefferson, the brainchild of a movement from the 1940s whose present-day adherents, known as the Proud Sons, hope to create a 51st state on the California-Oregon border. Caitlin’s real purpose, though, is to investigate the death of a member of the Daughters of God, an apocalyptic cult that lives on an Oregon hillside under the watchful eye of Desmond Pratten, the only male allowed in the single-sex commune. Caitlin has reason to believe that the deceased is Maya Aronson, the mother who surrendered Caitlin shortly after her birth to be adopted by LA cop Matthew Bergman. Caitlin both hopes and fears that she’ll learn more about Maya and discover what led the former porn star to retreat to an Oregon hillside to await the end of the world. But she needs to be careful. The Daughters aren’t exactly popular with the locals, especially not with lumber tycoon Anders Larsen or his son, Johnny. Johnny’s teenage daughter, Promise, ran off and joined the cult, and he aims to get her back at any price. Sparks fly when his mission collides with Caitlin’s. As the Sons and Daughters clash, it’s anyone’s guess which off-the-grid worldview will prevail. Action-loving readers are the real winners in this offbeat thriller.
August Norman returns with the second thrilling Caitlin Bergman novel, perfect for fans of Julia Keller, Tess Gerritsen, and Michael Koryta.
Caitlin went in search of her mother…but what she found may set the world on fire.
Caitlin Bergman’s mother is dead. That’s what the award-winning journalist has told everyone for the past forty years. Easier to lie than explain how Maya abandoned her only daughter before dropping off the map forever.
But when a rural sheriff invites Caitlin to the woods of coastal Oregon to identify her mother’s remains, Caitlin drops everything to face the woman she’s spent a lifetime hating. Unfortunately, the body–abandoned on the land of a reclusive cult, the Daughters of God–was left faceless. Instead, Caitlin finds the diary of a woman obsessed with the end of the world, one that hints the cult’s spiritual leader knows the identity of Caitlin’s real father. She’s not the only one looking for clues in her mother’s writing. Johnny Larsen, a violent white supremacist whose family runs the county, thinks the Daughters of God kidnapped his teen-aged daughter–and will do anything to get her back.
At the top of a hill, an army of women wait for the end of days. In the town below, the Larsens plot to purify their county. Caught in the middle, Caitlin must decide which is more important–learning the truth about her past, or saving Mama Maya’s chosen daughters from the end of the world.
