Title: Marsha’s Story
Author: Tressa Armstead
Publisher: Toplink Publishing, LLC
ISBN: 978-1948779814
Pages: 112
Genre: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Reviewed by: Rae C. Bernard

Read Book Review

Abuse of any kind is a despicable act against another living creature, in particular, our fellow human. Unfortunately, in today’s world emotional, mental, physical, and even spiritual abuse is all too common in our society, leaving you to wonder when will it end? We’ll never know. In Marsha’s Story, author Tressa Armstead provides her readers with a backstory of two important characters that support the main story about Marsha. We’re introduced to a lovely married woman, named Susan Dalton, who is shaken out of her mind as she uncovers disturbing details about her husband Johnny Dalton, of a little less than a year. When she discovers hidden journals that belonged to the late Marsha Ellen Cantrell, her husband instantly gets defensive when he learns she’s read some of them. Then she begins her own investigation to what really happened to Marsha. Although her death was ruled as a suicide, Susan believes there’s much more to the story and that Johnny could very well be the reason behind it. As a reader, you’ll follow along Susan as she pays a visit to Johnny’s first wife Anna Peters for advice, then paid her respect to Marsha’s mother, Mrs. Cantrell, her brothers Josh and Jim Bob. It is an emotional journey, witnessing and gaining new perspectives from people outside of her marriage.

The death of Marsha has honestly come between Susan and Johnny’s marriage all because he got angry at her “snooping.” As I was reading, I kept thinking why isn’t the husband sitting his wife down to relieve her of any suspicions? I felt as if the unsaid and lies led Susan to venture off to find her answers. Witnessing that their marriage didn’t have much communication only fueled her journey to find out what truly happened to his late ex-wife. When one of the characters expressed that Johnny is capable of killing, while being cryptic about him possibly not actually killing Marsha, an alarm went off in my head that maybe he didn’t do it. Only reading this book through its entirety would provide those answers.

Author Tressa Armstead dropped hints from the encounters Susan had with people who were either apart or involved somehow in Marsha’s life, you just have to pay close attention to them. This allows a unique reading experience because you feel as if you’re a detective investigating Marsha’s death as a sidekick. I personally wanted all the accusations against Johnny to be nothing else but a huge misunderstanding, but his anger kept me suspicious of him as if he could possibly have been involved. At the same time, the love Johnny had towards his wife despite her suspicions of him made me root for their marriage to be repaired even more. Each new piece of evidence or knowledge learned made finding exactly what happened much more challenging. This was truly an adventure only to read the ending and feel sorrow at how it ended.

I personally think that since there are so many people like this in our world, we need to be more aware and offer some form of guidance. The abusers are grown children in adult bodies terrorizing others because of their lacking of crucial aspects in their childhood. What drives individuals to cause harm to other people will forever be a mystery to us, that’s why therapy exists and maybe it should be used more often. I felt a connection with Susan, wanting her to be safe throughout the entire time she went seeking for answers. The love both Susan and Johnny had for each other was unmatched and even though suspicions were there, they still shared enough love between them. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to be placed in the shoes of a wife wanting to know the truth about her husband, all while loving him at the same time.