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Overview
When Robyn Panek is summoned by her ailing uncle Pal to operate his pony ring for one final season on his Massachusetts farm, her years away form the vacation spot of her youth seem an unbridgeable gap. But she is pulled by forces stronger than memory to piece together the events of that last childhood summer — when a dark mystery swirled about her friend Lucy Dragon. They called her crazy, and Robyn must at last uncover the truth about Lucy's sudden disappearance — and make peace with her own first love, Frankie. Now the future of Pal's six ponies, who circle the ring five times for a dollar a ride, is as uncertain as Robyn's own, as she confronts the past she ran from so long ago.
Synopsis
I heard Pal in my head: "Word of a good dead travels far. Word of a bad deed even farther." And, apparently, even travels off into the future. Years ahead, still remembered with fascination. Like how my father used to slow down the car back in Illinois when we'd get near the former home of the guy who left his wife and baby to run off with the nun who taught him in ninth grade. It still transfixed us...
Now I was living in one of those kinds of houses, a destination point for those continuing to hand Lucy's story down through the generations. Vehicles braking as they approached the cement letters spelling out PANEK. Drivers narrating: "Right there—that was the home of a crazy girl..."
When Robyn Panek is summoned by her ailing Uncle Pal to operate his pony ring for one final season and then close down his beloved Massachusetts farm, her twenty-two years away from the vacation spot of her youth seem an unbridgeable gap. But she is pulled by forces stronger than her memories to try to piece together the events of that last childhood summer—when a dark mystery and chilling rumors swirled about her former friend, Lucy Dragon. They called her crazy...and Robyn must at last uncover the truth about Lucy's strange and sudden vanishing—and make peace with her first love, Frankie. Now, the future of Pal's six ponies, who pace the ring five times for a dollar a ride, is as uncertain as Robyn's own, as she confronts the past she ran from so long ago and comes to terms with the life she has made for herself.
Publishers Weekly
Shea's bestselling Hoopi Shoopi Donna and Lily of the Valley established her as a chronicler of Polish-American life with a wholesome and heartwarming, if sometimes treacly, style. Now she focuses on Robyn Panek, who returns to the Massachusetts farm where she spent childhood summers. Her Uncle Pal, too old and sickly to tend to the farm, asks her to run the pony ring for one last summer before he sells the property. Robyn obliges, and finds herself haunted by memories of betrayal. During her last summer on the farm, 18-year-old Robyn, readying for college in the fall, befriended boarder Lucy Dragon, a disturbed teenager sent by her parents to reap the psychological benefits of living in a rural setting. While Lucy and Robyn became fast friends, roaming the farm and its environs with Robyn's boyfriend, Frankie, the summer ended in heartbreak: a neighbor's baby vanished and Robyn realized that neither Lucy nor Frankie were what they seemed. Now, 22 years later, both Lucy and Frankie resurface to make amends. While die-hard fans will appreciate the folksy touches that capture the charm of a smalltown community stuck in a time warp Frankie works at the Day n' Night Dairy; a set of signs outside Pal's farm advertise "Clover Honey, Brown Eggs... Perfectly Round Rocks, Lucky Horseshoes (Used), Your Name in Cement" Shea's narrative meanders between the present and the past, with the central surprise hinted at so heavily that it is robbed of suspense by the time it is revealed. Without the anchor of a compelling plot, this novel feels like its title a retread of themes explored better in the author's previous books. (July 10) Forecast: Shea's reputation will drive sales of her latest, as willnational advertising and an eight-city author tour, but the book will do nothing to build her readership base. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.