THE SECRET OF RAVENS POINT by Jennifer Vanderbes

[bearreader1234]

"Couldn't put the book down" is a common exaggeration. Anyone can put a book down at any time. Some books will get slammed down or tossed into the trash, justly. But THE SECRET OF RAVEN POINT by Jennifer Vanderbes, slaps a quick tourniquet on the reader's arm and twists it unbearably when thoughts like "stop reading" dare to interrupt.
Set atop realistic telling of the destruction, gore and suffering of World War II, a young woman has joined the war effort as an Army nurse with the ulterior motive to search for her combatant brother who had gone missing in Italy years earlier.
Characterizations in this novel are so real that a salute to the front cover might net dozens of return salutes from the people inside.
More than this, RAVEN POINT is another warning by subtext, like a string of recent books, that only the armament maker and his investors benefit from war. All others endure distress, pain or death.
At its best, the book showcases the ability of some to handle humanity's most ignominious challenge, to face it down, and walk away into satisfying normality. At its worse--there is no worse.
Despite its scenes of medical intensity, nerve-stinging captures by the Nazis and heroics of love, I could put this book down whenever.
But I refused. Don't like tourniquets.