"Strong character study"

Her sixteen year old brother Andy calls pleading with Emma Killian to come home because their dad is acting strange; Don has even yelled at his beloved wife and two sons in front of patrons of the family run FLAMINGO DINER. Emma, busy working at the DC based Fashionable Memories Antiques store, blows away her sibling as being an alarmist. Two days later, Don apparently committed suicide driving his car into the nearby lake.

Emma returns home to bury her father and to help her mother and siblings cope with the tragedy. Police Chief Matt Atkins who witnessed the death tries to help the family too, but especially Emma, a woman he loved since his teen years. As the four surviving Killians try to regain their equilibrium, Emma falls in love with Matt, but she feels that Winter Cove is not cosmopolitan enough for a big city antiques dealer like her.

This is a strong character study as each one of the four Killians struggles in their personal way to cope with the apparent suicide. They go through the various stages of grief starting with none of them accepting that Don killed himself. Returning to normalcy is impossible as each copes with their feelings of guilt. Sherryl Woods provides her audience with a taut touching tale and readers will appreciate the depths the author reaches.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted August 25, 2003

Summary

Like television's Cheers, Flamingo Diner has always been a friendly place where everyone knows your name. Unfortunately, in the small town of Winter Cove, Florida, it is also the place where everyone knows everything about you. As a teenager Emma Killian didn't recognize what a remarkable business her family had created, and so she moved away.

Now her father's tragic death has brought her home to face a mountain of secrets, debts and questions about why and how her beloved father died. As Emma grapples with her out- of-control family, the responsibility of keeping Flamingo Diner afloat and a pair of well-meaning, senior-citizen sleuths, she finds support from an unlikely source.

Onetime bad boy Matt Atkins is now the Winter Cove police chief. Matt has always had a penchant for trouble and an eye for Emma. Now it seems he's the only one who can help Emma discover the answers to her questions...and give her a whole new reason to stay home.