Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite

In Norma Washington’s Ashes Don’t Tell Everything: Some Secrets Refuse to Stay Buried, Madison Jackson Winter is nearing the end of three years in prison for the death of a man at a Wisconsin diner. Once married to a bishop, Madison escaped her former life after a California wildfire left her presumed dead. Under the name Autumn Storm, she opened a diner in Pine Ridge, where a violent confrontation ended her attempt to live anonymously. With her release days away, Madison receives a visit from Morgan, a lawyer in the district attorney’s office who claims to be the daughter Madison was told had died at birth nearly forty years earlier. Morgan’s discovery raises questions about the hospital records that separated them, drawing Madison back toward a past she believed was buried.

Norma Washington’s Ashes Don’t Tell Everything is an extremely thoughtful novel with a lot going for it, especially its relatable portrayal of private sorrow beneath public smiles. Madison Jackson Winter recalls crying in her silk gown at a fundraiser before returning to raise five million dollars. I love Madison’s affectionate encouragement of younger people. She helps teenage busboy Daniel experiment with pecan syrup for his dream food truck. That same kindness emerges when she welcomes Sara Leigh, a friend’s little daughter, into the diner with her own apron and order pad. Miss Lucy, who runs the halfway house where Madison stays after prison, is wonderfully maternal, greeting her with a heartfelt welcome before encouraging her over lemon tea to face her former community with her chin up. Washington’s scenery is cinematic, from a wedding ballroom where chandeliers dim above marble halls ringing with the clink of glasses, to Black Swan Lake, where pale gold morning light mirrors the sky beneath a crooked cypress. Readers who enjoy multi-generational family fiction with an unforgettable heroine will adore this.