Noletta Fahr, a young law student, is out one day for a walk with her German shephard in a canyon park outside Salt Lake City. She unwittingly comes across a murder victim lying on the trail, just moments after he has been shot and killed. The murderer, still nearby, shoots Noletta as well in order to protect his identity. What he doesn't realize is that Noletta lives, though the gunshot wound to her head has caused permanent blindness. The killer eventually discovers that Noletta has lived, though because of her blindness, she is unable to identify him. Her dog, however, seems to remember, which results in the theft of her dog, leaving Noletta without the support she desperately needs, as well as many questions and the fear that someone may still be out there to get her.

This book started out promising, and the overall plot was a relatively good one. But the writing....ugh. The dialogue was just unrealistic. Very predictable, trite, and cliched. And just cheesy at times. I was constantly eye-rolling, and this got progressively worse as the book progressed. This may have been accentuated by the fact that I was reading on audio. The reader was overly dramatic, making the poor dialogue even worse. I honestly don't get some of the rave reviews for this book. Do these people not actually read any well-written fiction? So....decent story; poor writing. I highly doubt that I'd read anything else by this author. (Clair M. Poulson is a male author, by the way. I was previously under the assumption that this was a female writer, not that it matters either way.)

Side note: I didn't realize this was classified as LDS fiction. I didn't even know there was such a thing. However, I figured it out as there were references in the story about going to church, roles in the church, etc. That in itself did not bother me at all; however, it didn't really seem to "flow" with the book, and seemed as though the references were thrown in randomly. ( )

Noletta Fahr was enjoying a nice autumn day with a hike in the mountains. She had only began her hike with her adopted dog, Taffy, when she heard a gun shot then froze when she happened upon a man lying on the ground with red flowing out of his chest. Just beyond him, through the branches and with the bright, blinding sunset behind him, stood a man. As light glinted off the object in his hand, a shot was fired and struck Noletta in the head and all went black...It remained black. Although Noletta miraculously lived, the bullet severed the optical nerves and she would remain blind for the rest of her life.

Taffy, had become a trained guide dog. Having suffered abuse as a pup, the dog always growled at men. Embarrassing as it was, Noletta had not been able to break Taffy of that habit. Could she be able to identify the killer? This was apparently a concern because a year and a half later, Taffy was stolen and Noletta was now alone in her dark existence. Detective Martin Atkinson was assigned to the case.

New situations arose and a few twists to the plot occurred which led the reader to question his/her conclusions. The reader's attention was captured in continuously occurring events.

The character development was varied and well developed. The accompanying scenes were described in an easily pictured manner.

With a clever title and an eye-catching book cover, this novel appeals to fans of mystery/suspense stories.

This was slightly dragged out and predictable but had enough action and intriguing situations to hold the reader's interest.

This review was done on an audio Book read by David Walker who did a very good job of reading in the various voices in a most pleasant manner.

My review of this book offers a strong Four Stars rating. ( )