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Sandy Adams is a happily married mother of one living in Baltimore. This is her debut novel. Dealing with trauma in a healthy and constructive way is so often not considered a priority. While this book is a mystery, even more importantly it shows how different people choose to deal with trauma and how those decisions affect choices you make and the friendship you hold most dear.
Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite
The Glorious Beyond is a psychological murder mystery written by Sandy Denise Adams. In just three more days, Kevin and Kim would have been celebrating their tenth wedding anniversary. They were poised on the brink of a new adventure as well. They were moving to Boston and were in the process of selling their current home. Kim had gone for a girls’ weekend with Sharon; one last hurrah for the two best friends before the relocation. While she was returning home, her thoughts invariably went back to Kevin and the argument they had had before she left. Kim wanted flowers and candy and the romance associated with anniversaries, but she did remember what her pastor’s wife had said about how her husband’s behavior was his own way of expressing his love. Kim couldn’t wait to get into the house and apologize, but as she entered through the back way into the kitchen, she became alarmed by the foul odor emanating from within the house. Then, she saw him. His eyes were bulging out, and the bullet hole in his forehead had trails of dark blood leading from the wound down onto his cheeks. Kim’s soul, her love, her life was dead. Just like that. It shouldn’t happen to people who do the right things, she thought, but it had.
Sandy Denise Adams’ psychological murder mystery novel, The Glorious Beyond, is a taut and suspenseful tale about a young woman’s attempt to pick up the pieces of her shattered life and to gain some understanding as to why her husband had been murdered. Adams’ plot is original and compelling, and one can’t help but sympathize with Kim as she tries to cope with the fact that she, as the spouse, is automatically considered a person of interest in the case. The author gives the armchair sleuth plenty of clues and red herrings to consider as they mull over Kevin’s murder and the circumstances surrounding it. The reader is also privy to some arresting moments as Kim and Sharon attend a three-month group session for trauma survivors. I was especially interested in seeing how Myron, the trauma group counselor, works with the participants and helps them to relive, and begin healing from, those often buried traumatic memories. The Glorious Beyond is most highly recommended.
