Book Review – The Woman In The Photo

Mary Hogan is the New York based bestselling author of Two Sisters and a number of young adult titles.

Hogan weaves together two coming-of-age tales, one set in the late Victorian era and the other in the present day.

Elizabeth Haberlin, of the Pittsburgh Haberlins, holidays with her family every summer at the exclusive South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club. The club is built on the banks of a lake in the Allegheny Mountains, above the steel-mill town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. When the lake wall disintegrates during heavy rains and floods the community below, her life is irrevocably changed by the destruction.

Lee Parker is about to turn eighteen, becoming eligible to receive information about her closed adoption. The information includes an old photograph of two women standing together amongst rubble. One of them is the founder of American Red Cross, Clara Barton, and the other is Lee’s ancestor. She juggles her love and respect for her adoptive mother, Valerie, with the desperate need to know where she comes from as she hunts for more information.