Books For The Road - Wish You Well by David Baldacci

While on our dive trip to Grand Cayman I managed to read two books and start a third. The one I'd like to share with you today is Wish You Well by David Baldacci. I'm not exactly sure where it falls in his career of action suspense novels with characters like Will Robie and John Puller. It was published in 2007 and is totally different than anything else of his I've read.

Here's the just of the story:
Precocious 12-year-old Louisa Mae Cardinal lives in the hectic New York City of 1940 with her family. Then tragedy strikes--and Lou and her younger brother, Oz, must go with their invalid mother to live on their great-grandmother's farm in the Virginia mountains. Suddenly Lou finds herself coming of age in a new landscape, making her first true friend, and experiencing adventures tragic, comic, and audacious. But the forces of greed and justice are about to clash over her new home...and as their struggle is played out in a crowded Virginia courtroom, it will determine the future of two children, an entire town, and the mountains they love.

Baldacci did a wonderful job bringing the Virginia mountains into focus and exploring life there in the 1940s. It is a heartbreaking but also heartwarming story. One of those books that you don't want to end because you don't want to give up the characters. Not all authors who move out of their genre can pull off such a good story that is out of their realm of storytelling. I hope he has another one of these I can discover or at least that he might write in the future.

Truly a good book for the road.