Beautifully written
A brutal crime divides a town in West Texas, 1972. Valentine: A Thriller is not an easy read, but it is an important one, and so beautifully written, with such deep emotions, the reader will be left changed.
Gloria Ramirez is nearly killed in an assault. She’s Latina; the rapist is white. She finds help in the form of Mary Rose Whitehead who, though seven months pregnant and with her 8-year-old daughter in the house, holds the rapist at bay. That scene alone, with the terror and depth of emotion, should win Elizabeth Wetmore a Pulitzer. The authorities arrive, and Gloria survives, her rapist’s trial pending. No longer feeling safe on the ranch, Mary Rose moves to town, where she finds to her shock that a lot of people don’t think she should testify against a white man.
It’s the characterization that makes this book so compelling. We have Gloria and Mary Rose, and also Corinne, the bereaved widow across the street, and Dorothy Anne, a ten-year-old practically raising herself, in desperate need of a friend. The book unfolds with the Texas summertime heat—the trial is pending, opinions are heated, and relationships are tested. There is such unflinching grace and power in this book, and the writing is lyrical. Every woman alive had faced fear because of her gender. But the small acts of courage and kindness matter more, even when the world doesn’t change.