LitPick Review
Strange Karma by Willow Healy is, in her own words, "a mystery/thriller set in two eras: 1920s England and Tibet, and the present-day Himalayan mountains." The book opens in 1924 on the cusp of the thrilling British expedition to climb Mt. Everest. One of the main characters from 1924 has a mysterious connection to the main character in the present day. We meet Cynthia Graham in a lawyer's office in England as she is sorting out a surprising inheritance from a grandmother she never met. She soon discovers a deeper mystery surrounding her grandmother and the Mt. Everest expedition in 1924. Only when Cynthia travels to Nepal to make her own mountain climb does the mystery unfold, and her searching questions are answered in the end.
Opinion:
Willow Healy describes her book as a mystery/thriller, and it is. The thrills are in the scenery, which the author describes well and without cliches, and in the dangerous situations in which the characters find themselves. The mystery is much more than a "whodunit"; the mystery includes discovering why certain things happen and the motives behind the actions of characters. I would encourage the author to do a deeper investigation about how people would respond and react to dangerous situations. The historical fiction sections of the book and the vivid descriptions of the places are where this author really shines. The pacing of the story was even, and the characters were real and relatable.
