In the Blue Hour is a hauntingly beautiful book rife with Native American folklore and traditions. Fifty-something-year-old Elise has lost her long-time husband Michael to a tragic car accident–one she’d dreamed of a few weeks prior to it happening–and seven months later she’s still floundering. They’d known each other since they were kids in northern New Mexico and have been together since she was in her early twenties, so his absence has left a gaping hole in her life. A successful wood carver, Michael’s Native American art was and still is in demand, while Elise’s tapestries never took off. And she was always fine with that. But now she can find no solace in weaving or any other tasks for that matter, and she’s left wondering what to do with her life. Her best friend Monica drags Elise to an art fair in Taos, and here Elise encounters psychic Celestina, who not only knows things about Elise that she should not know, but she sets things in motion that change the course of Elise’s life.
Elise has grown up around Native Americans and healers, accepted into their family as one of their own, so she’s been told that the dead watch over the living. But when strange things start happening around her, whispers of her name on the wind, and a black crow begins to appear to her, Elise is positive that her husband’s spirit is back to give her a message. Elise seeks out the tarot card reading Celestina, who then sets her up with a science-minded man named Tom, and they embark on a road trip from New Mexico to Tennessee so Elise can seek out a stone carver who’s business card fell out of her husband’s jacket all by itself. Along the way, she’s guided from psychic to psychic, learning new and cryptic things about herself and her family that she has to face before she can finally be free to move on with her life.
I give In the Blue Hour a 4.5 out of 5. I really enjoyed the flow and characters in this book. Elise is so steeped in her grief that it hit me hard; I’ve been with my husband for twenty-three years and I don’t know what I’d do without him. Her tight knit group of adoptive Native American family was supportive and traditional. I loved learning about their traditions and folklore. The secondary characters were well-developed and unique, even if they weren’t on too many pages. The writing was descriptive and it just popped off the page vividly into my head. In the Blue Hour is a subtle, subdued book that creeps up you with it’s deep emotions, and I really enjoyed Elise’s journey from grieving widower as she found her way to belonging somewhere.
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About Elizabeth Hall
Elizabeth Hall spent most
of her life in the mountains of Colorado. She has worked as a teacher and communications consultant, including hosting, writing, and producing the radio show Heart of the West (KRZA, Alamosa) and producing an oral history compilation for the Great Sand Dunes National Park. She now lives in the Pacific NW.
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I’m intrigued by the Native American spiritualism as it is something I don’t know a great deal about.
Thanks for being a part of the tour!
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