As she rides the ferry across Lake Champlain, Troy Chance glances at a ferry headed in the opposite direction and sees something—a child’s face?—as a bundle topples from the deck into the cold water. Impulsively, she dives in and finds the bundle is, indeed, a child of about six, bundled in a tightly tied sweatshirt. It’s a long, hard swim back to shore, where oddly enough nobody has reported the boy missing. The traumatized child himself is not talking, except to murmur a couple of words in French.
Troy, who lives an independent and outdoorsy life as a freelance reporter, finds herself captivated by the fragile boy and is reluctant to take him to the authorities, fearing he may be returned to an abusive family. Instead, she uses her journalistic skills to discover he is the son of a Quebecois businessman, whose wife and child were abducted for ransom months earlier. She isn’t sure she can trust the child’s father. All she knows is that she cares too much about the child to turn back.
Though at times the plot depends on Troy taking actions that aren’t entirely rational, the depth of her attachment to a little boy who toppled into her life is brought to life on the page. Learning to Swim is a suspenseful mystery with a rich emotional texture.
"For me, the books I read were the call—the call to adventure, to thinking, to acknowledging other points of view. But to complete the ritual, I needed to respond."
I am surrounded by books. Every room, every space in my large, sprawling 1750s house is full of books...
Our history and experiences can define us, inspire our actions, and as writers impact our words and stories. Mine most definitely has: my father was a small-time gangster. Really.
"My ah-ha moment came when I read The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald.... That was it for me – I was off to the races."
Nietzsche once wrote, “There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.”
"Mystery books were daring and exciting, firing up my imagination and making me yearn to become a girl detective or even a secret agent. They also empowered me to make up impromptu ghost stories around the campfire for my Girl Scout troop and sneak into the cemetery at night on a dare."
Fire and Ashes, the latest Angela Richman Death Investigator mystery, is an exploration of a fatal fire. To research this novel, Viets delved into the devastating consequences of junk science and arson investigations.
