Ron Rash – Serena

First let me say I LOVED THIS BOOK! This was definitely one of those books I could relate to and actually visualize….. literally! The setting being set in the mountains of North Carolina was wonderful. Ron Rash is a very talented writer and I was very impressed with his knowledge of the surrounding area and of logging.
Serena was a very interesting character. Her personality was a hard one at first to unveil, but her true self was slowly peeled away. At first her drive was mainly focused upon their business of logging. She was very knowledgeable about logging and at first everyone was impressed and envious of her. This became the center of her and Pemberton’s lives.
In the beginning of the book, it was first made known that Pemberton was just arriving back in the NC Mountains from Boston and he brought with him his new bride, Serena but awaiting him was a young pregnant girl named Rachel Harmon with her father. Rachel was just 16 years old while Pemberton being somewhere around 50 and she was pregnant with Pemberton’s baby. When Rachel’s father approached him, he revealed he came to kill Pemberton, but in return, Pemberton kills Rachel’s father. Rachel is now alone and left with trying to raise her son alone and she struggles and longs for Pemberton to return to help her and take her for his own.
When Serena becomes pregnant, she continues to live life like she is invincible but eventually she ends up losing the baby for reasons unknown. When this occurs, she also loses her ability to ever have any more children. While Serena was having issues with her pregnancy just before losing it, she goes to Dr. Cheney and he just brushes her off and tells her it’s probably just gas and to eat some peppermints. Later after she recovers from her miscarriage, they find the doctor dead in a bathroom stall with his tongue cut out, holding a peppermint in each hand. This is when Serena starts knocking people off more rapidly.
Galloway was working and training someone and when he accidently got his hand chopped off, Serena helps save his life. Galloway and Serena become partners in crime at this point and he begins to follow and assist her in deeds of murder and deceit. They kill several people who get in their way and Pemberton kills one of his partners, Buchanan, himself. Galloway and Serena stalk Rachel and Galloway tries to kill her, but she manages to escape, but he does kill the Widow Jenkins who has been a mentor to Rachel and has helped her with her son.
Pemberton manages to get a picture of his and Rachel’s son and he also gives the sheriff $300.00 to give Rachel, but she never finds out where it comes from and she uses it to runs off to Seattle where she and her son lives the rest of their lives. Pemberton and Galloway go off hunting one day seeking a mountain lion they have been looking for since they first arrived. This is when Pemberton is told by Galloway that Serena (who has already bought her husband's coffin) has put poison in the sandwich he just ate, he also just got bitten by a snake, then he fell off an embankment, then eaten by the mountain lion.
Then the story jumps into the future to the spring of 1975. Serena has spent the past 45 years in Brazil and Jacob has come to seek his revenge. He first kills the one hand man sleeping on the floor next to Serena’s bed (assuming this is Galloway), then Jacob, Rachel & Pemberton's grown son, planted the knife that was used to kill his grandfather into Serena's stomach and she walks out on the veranda and dies.
The ending was a little surprising, but I was glad Serena finally got what she greatly deserved!