Under the Witness Tree [Paperback]

When an estranged great-aunt she's never met dies and leaves Dhari Weston the ancient Grayson house outside Atlanta, Dhari is both curious and irritated. Traveling from Michigan to dispose of the old monstrosity sounds like a lot of extra work, and Dhari's life is already far too full. Her time and energy are taken up by her job as a grant-writer for an AIDS coalition, a less-than-committed girlfriend, and serious problems in her family of origin. Little does she know that she's at the crossroads of change and is about to be sorely tested by new experiences.

Erin Hughes, a professor well-versed in Civil War era architecture and history is brought in to assess Anna Grayson's house, and Dhari feels an unexpected attraction to her. Dhari also meets the elderly Nessie Tinker, descendant of the slaves who worked the land in the 1800s and who eventually became landowners and neighbors to the Graysons. Nessie served as caretaker and friend to Anna Grayson, and unbeknownst to Dhari and Erin, Nessie knows many of the secrets of the past-some of which go all the way back to Civil War times-that the two women are exploring.

Dhari is gradually drawn in to the mysteries of the old house and its former occupants, but at the same time, her wandering girlfriend and mentally ill mother back in Michigan exert pressures upon her that keep her stressed and worried. Dhari has her own secrets, and as the story is revealed, the reader gradually comes to understand the depth of her pain and the extent to which she has gone to prevent anyone from knowing about it-even her girlfriend. When she lets slip to Erin some vital details, Dhari is appalled. "She'd been first-time lucky that Erin Hughes thinks the bones in her own closet shine just as bright white as hers. Most people, however, aren't that honest. They lock their skeletons up behind propriety and self-protection and make choices that to the casual observer seem entirely normal. Just like Dhari Weston. It's the closer inspection, the one that rattles the door, that has to be avoided" (p. 103).

The ways that Dhari ends up "rattling that door" make for an engrossing read. The book itself is slight, but the issues raised and the secrets revealed make for powerful and unforgettable reading. This book was entertaining, and the way the pieces all came together was ultimately quite satisfying. Read it for the tight plot, for the mystery, for the romance, and don't miss this engaging story. ~Lori L. Lake, reviewer for Midwest Book Review and author of the "Gun" series

I bought this book and read it in one sitting. I bought it based on the blurb on the back cover: Sherman's march to the sea, an old plantation, family secrets and entanglements, the beautiful Erin Hughes, what could be better? I didn't expect to find so much in such a small package though. If I tried to list all the various plots and subplots, this review would be as long as the novel I am strongly recommending. I'm still trying to fathom how the author accomplished this.
Main character Dhari Weston has a life that is becoming too typical of us all: she is busy with deadlines at work, overwhelmed with care giving for a mentally unstable mother, over burdened with guilt and a secret fear that her mother's condition might be genetic. She has a girlfriend, but she doesn't have enough time to even speculate whether Jamie is being faithful or not. (How busy is that?) On top of everything, she inherits a Southern plantation from an aunt she never knew: one more thing to take care of. Taking time away from the job, the girlfriend who needs watching, the mother's undiagnosed but very real illness, she flies to Atlanta, determined to handle the sale of the property quickly and get back on track.
There she meets the appealing Dr. Erin Hughes, brought in to research the provenance and history of the place she inherited, and Nessie Tinker, an old friend of her aunt's, and as facts from her family's past are revealed, so is her affection for both Nessie and the lovely Erin. More complications in a too complicated life. Unwillingly drawn into the secrets from the past, including an extramarital relationship during the Civil War uncovered in diaries and letters, and reluctantly admitting to an attraction to Erin, the appeal of the old plantation, and her family's hidden background, Dhari finds herself revealing secrets of her own, facing fears, struggling to overcome them, and doing something people like her find all too difficult to accomplish: letting go of some of the responsibility for things she can't control or change. All of us should take a step back and look at what we sacrifice in our too busy lives. And we should take the kind of chance Erin and Dhari take, when presented to us.
I was born and raised in the South, and graduated with a degree in history, so I can attest to the accuracy of the research that must have gone into this work. The characters were deftly drawn, the settings believable, the plots intriguing. Only one mystery is left: how did so much get crammed into so few pages? Nessie, Erin, Dhari, Jamie, her brother Douglas, her father, her mother, especially Erin's father, even Pippin the dog, all are delightful and fully realized. As a writer myself, I have nothing but praise for the job done here by Ms. Martin. This is an excellently researched, well written, and very entertaining book.

Under the Witness Tree is a saga of love with its roots extending back to the civil war. When Anna Grayson dies and leaves her estate to Dhari Weston, a niece she has never met, she opens the window on family secrets that have been kept for over a hundred years.

Although it is being advertised here by Bella Books, Under the Witness Tree will be published by another press and is scheduled to be released in the Fall of 2004.