Trails in the Sand

By: P.C. Zick

Narrated by: Jeffrey A. Hering

Caroline Carlisle loved Simon from the moment she first laid eyes on him when she was nine years old. Unfortunately, he married her older sister, and thus set a southern family on a collision course with its past. After the death of her sister that makes Simon a widower, the two finally marry and attempt to make a family with Simon's daughter, Jodi. Jodi has other ideas, and they don't include welcoming a new stepmother who also happens to be her aunt.

As Caroline starts to report on the oil spill threatening the sea turtles on Florida's panhandle beaches, she begins to uncover the secret of her own mother's past, which includes her brother's suicide and a teenage pregnancy. With Caroline's sharpened reporter skills, she digs until she brings all the secrets to light, including her own.

©2013 Patricia Camburn Zick (P)2015 Patricia Camburn Zick

Story interconnecting family & environment issues

Which scene was your favorite?

In Zick’s writing, the family and environment issue are interconnected: the night scene on a beach near Cape Canaveral, when the sea turtle hatchlings make their way to the sea, is moving on both levels at once. It left trails in the sand, in a direction which for me, evoked hope for a future founded on understanding and acceptance.

Any additional comments?

Set on Florida's panhandle and the east coast near St. Augustine, the second novel in the Florida Fiction series, Trails in the sand, presents Caroline, a woman faced with challenges on two levels: her family and her environment.

On the family level, she uncovers family secrets--murder, incest, and pregnancies—secrets that went unspoken for as long as three generations back. Going forward, these secrets threaten to unsettle the shaky balance between her, her husband, and his daughter, as they struggle to reach for each other and find forgiveness. On the environment level, they must pull their efforts together, to rescue sea turtles that are threatened by extinction due to environmental hazards brought on by society.

I expected to hear a distinct voice for each character, but for this story the voice artist, Jeffrey A. Hering, remains anchored, for the most part, in the role of the narrator. He has a pleasant, manly, mature voice with lovely warmth to it. The nuances in every sentence are fully realized with his storytelling skills. Possessing a voice age range of 30s to 50s, he is a veteran talent, who focuses on a natural sound, imparting a confident, energetic, captivating sense of his performance.

Good Plot & Narration

Carolina is an environmental writer, the hot topic is the sea turtles, an the effect on them from an oil spill. Unknowingly she also uncover secrets within her family that could cause problems, and a love she has for someone . Many twists are in this plot and one thought of her and what all she was dealing with. was well done. As was the narration giving a depth to Caroline.Enjoyed as well as the narration.
Given audio for my voluntary review

Terrible Narration

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Jeffrey A. Hering?

A woman would be much better than a man. Jeffrey Hering mispronounced too many words and bumbled over others.