For years, Caitlin Bergman has told everyone that her mother is dead—it’s a simpler explanation than the truth that, after giving Caitlin up for adoption, the woman dropped out of sight. When Caitlin receives word from a police department in Oregon that her mother has died, Caitlin travels there to identify the body. This turns out to be rather more complicated that expected as the tips of the corpse’s fingers have been amputated and all her teeth pulled. Caitlin gives a DNA sample to confirm the woman’s identity, and while Caitlin awaits the final results, she uncovers a free-love cult, a small but politically-powerful clan of white supremacists, the kidnapping of a teenager who’s the victim of parental sexual abuse, and a web of deceit that dates back many years and covers ground from LA to Oregon.
Award-winning journalist Caitlin Bergman is tough, has a good sense of humor, laced with a bit of charm and humility. As she learns more about her own past and her birth parents, she’s beginning to learn that family is less about breeding and more about the people she surrounds herself with. The cult is well written and interesting, bringing to mind the Jonestown Commune in Guyana with its mass suicide and the Branch Davidians. The descriptions of the locales seems spot-on though I haven’t been in the Great Northwest in many years.
This story is written from the first person female perspective by a male author, yet Norman conveys a woman’s point of view well.
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Sins of the Mother is available through:
Come and Get Me is also available through:
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