Crooked River by Valerie Geary

L​iving in a meadow in a tepee with their father is how​ Sam and Ollie spent their summers because it was the only way they saw him after he left them and their mother.  ​Would the meadow and the tepee be their permanent home now because their mother had died?

That was the plan, but when a dead body is found floating in their swimming hole that summer, all is changed.  Their father was accused of the murder, and all evidence pointed to this homeless beekeeper.  His appearance and ​lifestyle made him the perfect suspect.
        
Both Sam and Ollie ​are endearing, quite bright, and love their father.  Ollie doesn't talk when she is upset,​ and she ​see​s​ things that others do not.  She sees things called Shimmerings that warn her about good and bad.  Sam knows why Ollie doesn't talk, but she doesn't know what Ollie sees.

CROOKED RIVER has wonderful characters and a wonderful storyline.  You will fall in love with both of the girls and their adopted grandparents, Franny and Zeb, but their father, Bear/Frank,​ was​ a bit more difficult to like.
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Ms. Geary's writing is very descriptive, exceptionally absorbing, and keeps you glued to the pages as Sam and Ollie search for clues that could prove their father is innocent.  ​As so many reviewers have said:  "This book is difficult to put down."  I wholeheartedly agree.

Ms. Geary seamlessly and creatively takes you back and forth​ in time as the story unfolds​ and is told through each girl's voice in alternating chapters.​

Everything about CROOKED RIVER is warm and family oriented.  CROOKED RIVER had me wanting to be there with Sam and Ollie to mother them and to tell them to be careful with their investigation of the murder and who they were befriending.

I really enjoyed this book.  I will be looking for more from Ms. Geary.  Don't miss reading CROOKED RIVER. 

CROOKED RIVER  just had a homey feel to it along with a storyline that had situations that ​could actually happen and a very suspenseful, tense ending.  5/5

This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation by the publisher in return for an honest review.