Review of "Then Came the thunder" by Rachel Huszar

The Amazon blurb: Jessalyn Joy loves her husband, but she can’t help the feelings that arose when he volunteered for the Union army. When he comes back to her in a box instead of on his feet, those feelings complicate even more. 

Jessalyn’s mourning period is cut short when something begins to attack the livestock in their small town, and greater dangers begin to threaten their provincial life. Thrown together with the new reverend, one of her own students, and a strange man somehow related to her husband’s passing, Jessalyn must find a way to stop the evils that threaten her husband’s first and ultimately last home. 

Set in the Southwestern home front, Huszar blends a taste of fantasy into a startling down-to-earth world, creating a high stakes adventure for this strong female protagonist and her band of amateur sleuths.

Amongst the Native Americans there is the legend of the Thunderbird but if you are like me from the other side of the globe that kind of cultural references go completely unnoticed. (In my case it was filed in a back drawer of ,my brain after having read a novel dealing with that legend 20 years ago and after a freshening by our friend Google). Maybe the author can start with a prologue where an old shaman is telling that story centuries before the start of the novel.

The novel itself starts off quite good but then gets a bit rushed leaving one with all kind of questions and in my case "rings a bell somehow". It would have worked better if it had been a bit longer and complicated.