About the Book

Book: Written Off

Author: Barbara Cornthwaite

Genre: Christian Cozy Mystery

Release date: May 2021

“Break a leg?” They’ll be lucky if they don’t all break their necks!

After years of waiting, Katrina finally has her happily ever after. All is right with her world . . . until hate crimes begin happening in the charming college town of Wilkester. Even more disturbing is the fact that the perpetrator seems to be connected with the writing class Katrina teaches. How can she prevent her rosy visions of the future from turning into broken dreams?

Find out in this third book of the Wilkester Mysteries.

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About the Author

Barbara Cornthwaite lives in the middle of Ireland with her husband and children. She taught college English before “retiring” to do something she loves far more; her days are now filled with homeschooling her six children, trying to keep the house tidy (a losing battle), and trying to stay warm in the damp Irish climate (also a losing battle). She is surrounded by medieval castles, picturesque flocks of sheep, and ancient stone monuments. These things are unappreciated by her children, who are more impressed by traffic jams, skyscrapers, and hot weather.

More from Barbara

What Kind of Lessons Could a Mystery Possibly Teach Me?

It’s been a couple decades since I taught a college English class, and writing the Wilkester Mysteries with Professor Katrina Peters as the main character brought back happy memories of teaching. Not enough to want to go back to it—homeschooling my own kids is much more rewarding—but enough that I had to stop myself from writing much longer lectures into the stories! These are my first contemporary novels, and it was nice to write a story without the hours and hours of historical research I usually have to do. But whatever time period stories are set in, people feel the same emotions and have to learn the same spiritual lessons.

Katrina loves literature and can’t help seeing her own life as a story. The only problem is that she keeps thinking she knows what the Author is doing, and she has definite ideas about what the plot should be. She is not unlike myself: over and over I’ve thought I knew what God was doing in my life. And if He was short on ideas, I had quite a few that He was free to use! But He has rarely been doing what I thought He was, and for some reason He never seems to use my ideas about what could happen in my story. Both Katrina and I need to learn the lesson that God’s wisdom is beyond ours, His storytelling is much deeper and richer than ours, and His plots are never predictable!

MY REVIEW

This book in the series is more serious than the others. It takes on a topic that is very relevant for today. Hate crimes are on the rise and this story tackles the subject with realistic incidents. I don’t know that I would call this book a cozy mystery but rather a look at how the world is affected by racism. I was very intrigued by who the person was behind the different attacks.

There is some happy moments in the story where we get to see Katrina plan for her wedding. She has been waiting for this moment and it is fast approaching. I liked that she and Todd attended premarital counseling. It is an important step in being in agreement with issues that could cause discord in their marriage. We get to know more about Katrina and her teaching at the college. The author does a great job of tying the mystery of who is behind the hate crimes into one of Katrina’s classes.

The story was eerily similar to front page news of today. Riots becoming violent, people traveling to different places and starting the peaceful protest then provoking brick throwing and bottles breaking. Is someone in Katrina’s class responsible for all the hate crimes? The author really had me hooked on the storyline and I was anxious to see how it was solved.

I enjoyed reading about the wedding plans and all the work that they encountered with a new purchase. Katrina found time to really spend time with God and I think she found peace about several things she was stressing over. As for the mystery it was a lesson in greed and revenge. In the end I liked how the mystery was solved. I think it is a great reminder to all of us to love one another and not get caught up in worldly problems without praying and asking God for guidance.

I received a copy of this book from Celebrate Lit.The review is my own opinion.