Book Title: The Heaven Spot (A Novel) by Mary Frances Hill
Category: Adult Fiction (18+), 296 pages
Genre: Thriller/Mystery
Publisher: Mary Frances Hill
Release date: February 2024
Content Rating: PG-13 + M:
The story is about a recovering opioid addict (previously a soccer mom from Virginia) who travels to Florida to solve her estranged daughter’s (a runaway’s) murder and to learn about the life her daughter was leading.
- There are curse words. The F-word is used once.
- There are no sex scenes, but the mom discovers that her daughter was sexually fluid and in relationships with a woman and an older man. (separately/not a throuple)
- There is no graphic violence.
- The novel does deal with mature themes like addiction, suicide, and adultery as well as grief, guilt, the power of friendship, and forgiveness. However, given the protagonist’s addiction issues, it can be a bit raw at times.
The Heaven Spot is a modern-day mystery set in Palm Beach, Florida, that depicts opioid addict Maggie Robert’s desperate attempt to come to terms with her estranged daughter, Lilly’s, murder.
When divorcée Maggie Roberts stumbles into her Virginia bookstore for the last time to close up shop, she expects the morning to be rough. The business failure is hers alone. She took all those opioids. She relapsed. She vows to stay clean and regroup. But as she packs up her books, two cops appear and inform her that her estranged daughter, Lilly, has died in West Palm Beach.
Heartbroken, Maggie heads to Florida to find out why Lilly passed and how she lived. But when she arrives in the Sunshine State, she barely recognizes the young woman in the morgue.
Maggie doubts she’ll ever forgive herself for her past mistakes with Lilly but believes that if she remains local, she can push the detective to focus on Lilly’s case and learn about her daughter. But as she connects the dots, Maggie wonders the unthinkable—could she have played a part in Lilly’s death while relapsing and blackout-high? Can she live with herself if she did?
Check out this guest post by the Author Mary Frances Hill
How to make setting an unforgettable character.
ByMary Frances Hill
My husband works in the consumer products industry, and as a result, I’ve moved fourteen times. I’ve found welcoming people everywhere, and living in different communities has broadened my perspective. Given my transient lifestyle, it’s probably no big surprise that I made the Florida setting of my novel, The Heaven Spot, a distinct character. I did this naturally because of my life experiences. But if you’re not someone who has your moving company’s phone number in your iPhone contacts, and you don’t intuitively focus on setting when writing, how do you alter this habit?
1. Make setting an integral part of your novel’s premise.
One of my favorite YA magic realism novels, Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma, is set in Woodstock, New York. The protagonist, fourteen-year-old Cloe, finds a dead body in the Ashokan Reservoir, and the story unfolds from there. Suma could never have written this fantastical story about a complicated sister relationship without honing in on her novel’s setting. Why not follow Suma’s lead?
2. Write characters who feel connected to a place.
Delia Owens’ coming-of-age mystery novel, Where theCrawdads Sing, is about Kayla, a young girl from a North Carolina marsh, who gets involved in a murder investigation and later becomes a scientist/artist. Kayla truly loves her isolated home. In order to write Kayla well, Owens had to focus on Barkley Cove.
3. Take a tip from the classics.
Many classic novels reference settings in their title. Think Anne of Green Gables, Wuthering Heights, and The Count of Monte Cristo. One of my favorite books is Brooklyn by Colm Toibin. If you select a title that highlights a place, youwon’t forget the importance of your setting.
4. Describe your setting with the intensity with which you describe your characters.
Lotsof authors vividly describe their characters’ physical features and clothing. Who can forget Carrie Bradshaw’s cobalt blue Satin Manolo BlahnikHangisi pumps from Candace Brushnell’s chick-lit novelSex and the City? But if you want to up your setting game, Channel JK Rowling, the author of The Harry Potter Series, and apply Rowling’s visual veracity when describing Hogwarts to your current novel’s setting. Who cares if your book’s not a fantasy or if you’re not world-building? Your novel’s setting deserves to be magical, too.
To sum up, I’m not saying that stories that occur in unnamed generic places can’t be great or memorable. But when the setting feels like an afterthought or nonexistent, sometimes readers can feel ungrounded. Most readers want to go places when they read. In that sense, reading is a form of mind travel. Many people read to escape. So, why not truly transport your readers to the suburbs of Ohio, a dark, gloomy Scottish castle, or to a beautiful sandy Florida beach, like in my mystery novel, TheHeaven Spot? Setting can be a powerful tool. Consider using it to enrich your already compelling novel.
Mary Frances Hill was born in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. The daughter of a music professor and an elementary school teacher, Mary obtained a master’s degree in counseling psychology and worked as a therapist before raising two children. Though Mary currently lives in Southern California with her Russian Blue and Scottish Straight cats, her Pyredoodle puppy, her golfer husband, and her adult son and daughter, she spent many happy vacations at her house on Palm Beach Island—the setting of her most recent novel, The Heaven Spot. Mary is an avid dog walker and home renovator and loves binge-watching true crime documentaries and mysteries. Mary’s debut novel, The Worm Man, was published in 2022.
Connect with the author: Website ~ Goodreads
THE HEAVEN SPOT (a novel) Book Tour Giveaway
https://widget.gleamjs.io/e.js
Dana Loves Books 
Leave a comment