#BlogTour ‘I Dreamed Of Falling’ by Julia Dahl

About the book…

Roman Grady is the sole reporter for the local newspaper in a tiny Hudson Valley town – a town so small that every store opening is considered newsworthy.

But when Roman’s longtime girlfriend Ashley, the mother of his four-year-old son, is found dead, he realises he had no idea what was really going on in her life.

And when he starts asking questions, he’s not prepared for the answers.

What was Ashley doing at the cliffside home of her troubled ex-girlfriend? How did no one in a house full of people see what happened to her? And why does it seem like everyone in town suddenly has something to hide?

As Roman and his mother dig into Ashley’s last few months, the truths they uncover threaten to expose painful secrets.

The kind of secrets that can get you killed.

My thanks to the incomparable Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers and indie publishers par excellence of crime , No Exit Press for the blog tour invite and gifted review copy of ‘I Dreamed Of Falling’ by Julia Dahl

They say if you dream of falling, this represents a loss of control and everything is ok, as long as you don’t land…

This novel is a murder mystery with the beating heart of a small town character study, in which the environs of a tiny place ,of 8, 000 citizens, becomes claustrophobic with buried secrets.

Local reporter, Roman Grady -in fact, the only reporter -for the Adamsville Advocate , is local born and bred, brought up by his grandparents whilst his mother struggled with attachment and alcohol issues following the death of his father.

History is trying to repeat itself with Roman’s son Mason, being brought up principally by his grandmother, Tara, all of them living in the same house with Tara’s fiancee and Roman’s on/off long term girlfriend, Ashley.

As the book starts, the relationship is off,which is why, when her body is found in the yard of neighbour, ex-lover and local bad girl,Bella, Roman feels her loss so deeply. They never got the chance to reconnect after weeks of drifting apart and the manner of her is both haunting and brutal.

The discovery of drugs in her pocket suggests that being in Bella’s company has come with a price and it is easy to write off this as a death by misadventure , however, when Tara and Roman become increasingly convinced that not all is as it seems, they find find that the secret keepers of Adamsville are not so willing to give up the skeletons in their closets….

A brilliant and moving tale of small town life, death and the way it creates a sense both of knowing someone intimately, and yet, not at all, is truly heart wrenching. The nature of generational trauma and legacies which are handed down from parent to child is so well conveyed, whilst the rest of the town appears to be saddened by Ashley’s death, they move quickly on, Tara and Roman are determined that Mason will not be tainted by untruth about his mum.

A MASSIVE 5 stars from me and huge encouragement to pick up a copy , follow the tour, and check this fantastic writer out for yourself!

About the author…

Julia Dahl was born and raised in Fresno, California and currently lives in New York’s Hudson Valley with her husband and son.

Dahl began her career as a journalist working as a fact-checker at Entertainment Weekly. Since then, she has been an editor at Marie Claire, a freelance reporter at the New York Post, the deputy managing editor of The Crime Report, and a crime and justice reporter for CBS News.

She now teaches journalism at NYU.

Dahl’s first novel, ‘Invisible City’, was a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, and won the Barry Award, the Shamus Award, and the Macavity Award for Best First Novel.

Invisible City named one of the Boston Globe’s Best Books of 2014, and has been translated into eight languages

Links-http://www.juliadahl.com/

Twitter @juliadahl @Tr4cyF3nt0n @noexitpress