THE WILL OF WISTERIA by Denise Hildreth
Author Denise Hildreth has accomplished a good bit of success with her previous novels, which includes the SAVANNAH series as well as FLIES ON THE BUTTER. Her new book, THE WILL OF WISTERIA, is much more complex and enjoyable than those. It is a family saga novel that addresses the best and worst in us, and wraps it all up in a completely believable and entertaining story.
The story concerns the Wilcott family of Charleston, South Carolina. The patriarch of the family has died leaving a vast inheritance to each of his four children. Or so they think. It comes as a bit of a shock to Elizabeth, Jeffery, Mary Catherine and Will Wilcott to find they have to "work" for their inheritance.
The four children are told by a mysterious executor that their father requires then to work for free for one year at some job that is not connected to their current position. Elizabeth runs a law firm , Jeffery is a cosmetic plastic surgeon, Mary Catherine is trained as a teacher but is currently unemployed, and Will is a perennial student.
Reluctantly Elizabeth, Jeffery and Mary Catherine get other jobs. Will can't believe this request is legitimate so he doesn't comply. The heart of the book addresses this year of change in their lives, and focuses on how much a person can or is willing to alter his or her living habits.
There is a lot of depth to this story and Hildreth makes each change and each situation believable. She knows each of her characters and never strays from what this person is and what this person could be. She gets inside their minds, their hearts and their souls.
There is also a strong cast of supporting players and they too are fully drawn. Each person introduced is there for a purpose and moves the stories of these four individuals along. Along the way there are love stories, family tragedies, developing friendships and flawed relationships; and always there is hope. These four people get a chance to redeem themselves and to Hildreth's credit she gets the readers pulling for all four.
Hildreth is a southern writer who knows how to incorporate the southern trademark of melancholy into her writing. There is a wistfulness in her story that permeates each of the four lead characters and gives their individual situations poignancy and longing. Each has been affected and inflicted by his/her past and each has a yearning to do over the wrongs and make them right.
Family sagas are a tricky basis for a novel. They can get too conflicted and too aberrant. Hildreth keeps a firm control of her plot and her characters and this makes THE WILL OF WISTERIA a winner. It is such a good read that you find yourself wishing for a sequel. Maybe Denise will comply.
THE WILL OF WISTERIA is published by Thomas Nelson.. It contains 342 pages and sell for $14.99.