"Blackberry Winter"

"Blackberry Winter" appears to be Sarah Jio's third novel.  She heard the song "Blackberry Winter" by Hilary Kole on the radio and thought it was beautiful and piqued her interest.  Sarah also grew up in the northwest and has fond memories of hunting for blackberries with her family.  After hearing the song she decided to find out what a blackberry winter was and discovered it is "old-fashioned weather jargon for a late-season cold snap--think of plunging temperatures and snowfall in May, just when the delicate white flowers are beginning to appear on the blackberry vines."

Out of that research and some personal experiences the story she has written came to her.  It starts in 1933 in Seattle when a single mother, Vera Ray, has to leave her 3-year-old son Daniel home in their apartment alone or risk losing her job.  She needs the income for them to survive and reluctantly tucks him into bed before heading off to work the night shift as a maid in a local hotel.

When Vera leaves work, there has been a late spring snowfall and arriving at her apartment she discovers Daniel is gone.  Frantically she searches for him without success and the police do little to help her find her son.  They think he's just wandered off and will return.  Sara is distraught and turns to anyone who might be willing to help her find her son.

Fast forward to Seattle in 2010 when May 1st brings another "blackberry winter" to Seattle and a Seattle Herald reporter, Claire Aldridge, is assigned to write an article about it.  During her research, she discovers the story of Vera and Daniel and decides she must learn what happened.  As she digs deeper into the story, Vera's loss becomes her loss and she can't let it go until she discovers what happened to them.  Little does she know that she will discover a link between them and her present life.  pazt