“Shepherd’s Warning,” a mystery/ghost story that spans centuries and each chapter is part of the mystery.

 Shepherd’s Warning

by Cailyn Lloyd
Land of Oz, LLC.

Pb 390 pp.
ISBN 978-0-578-51916-6.
Book $12.95. Kindle $2.99  

When someone asks you if you are reading a book and you answer, “yes,” another question usually is---how many chapters is it?  “Shepherd’s Warning” has 74 chapters, though some chapters are one page in length.   Another author who works in short chapters is James Patterson, and for the reader, what a short chapter does, is set up a scenario around you, much as a three-panel screen with 74 notes stuck to it.  Eventually, all fall into place, but an index would have been nice. The story grabs the reader right away and carries them through the adventures of a family with an inherited house. Such is “Shepherd’s Warning,” a mystery/ghost story that spans centuries and each chapter is part of the mystery.

This is author Cailyn Lloyd’s first novel, and the author writes from experience, one of her former occupations being that of a storm chaser. The description of weather situations, puts the reader into the mind set of autumn and then colder weather.  The main characters of husband and wife, Laura and Lucas, their daughter, Dana, grand-daughter, Leah, and Lucas’ brother Nate, and his wife, Ashley, are in place right away. The other main character is the house, an old English Tudor style mansion that is out of place in this countryside and considered by the nearby town and residences as being haunted. The family inherits the house and Laura discovers she is “special” in a unique way.  The family decides to renovate the place for a show on television. Then we meet characters from the local town. Accidents happen, family emotions are in a turmoil and oh, the problems that occur and the mysteries that begin, even a touch of time-travel.

The descriptions of the situations Laura and her family find themselves in, puts the reader there, also.  For a first novel, I found “Shepherd’s Warning” to be a page-turner, and well-described. Readers becomes part of the action and can visualize what is happening with each of the characters. For an audio book, you could just close your eyes and “see” what is going on. The plot slowly brings all things together and does contain the classic elements of the following: don’t search for an unusual noise, a cemetery? visit it and if something is closed, open it.

As one reads, “Shepherd’s Warning,” one sees this could be a script for a movie or television series. This may be the next stop for the book,. Even at 390 pages, it is a fast read and holds your attention. Who hasn't traveled down the back roads on a vacation trip and seen an old mansion on a hillside. "I wonder who lives there," you think, as you drive on, but who, indeed, is the story of "Shepherd's Warning."

Copyright 2019 Marie Asner