Before the Rain Falls: A Novel

MYSTERY/HISTORICAL FICTION
Camille Di Maio
Before the Rain Falls: A Novel
Lake Union Publishing
Paperback, 978-1-5039-3997-4 (also available as an e-book, an audiobook, and on Audible), 334 pgs., $14.95
May 16, 2017

In 1943 in the Hidalgo County courthouse, Della Lee Trujillo is found guilty of the murder of her sister, Eula Lee, and sentenced to life in prison. Seventy years later, ninety-year-old Della returns to the fictional Texas border town of Puerto Pesar on parole. Della is ready for the Truth Days, ready to tell tales about the Before Days and the After Days; she just needs the right ear to hear them. Enter Mick Anders, a cynical reporter from Boston who has one last chance to save his career.

Before the Rain Falls: A Novel by San Antonio’s Camille Di Maio is a historical mystery, moving back and forth in time from the dark days of the Lee family’s past to the present-day troubles of Puerto Pesar. A record-breaking drought and poverty plague the town. As happens in trying times, desperate people turn to religion and the supernatural for solace and hope. Puerto Pesar is no exception as the populace decides that a childhood portrait of Eula Lee has begun crying, earning her the honorific “Santa Bonita.” Di Maio has a point to make about the diminished role of faith today:

“Her soul?” [Mick Anders asked]
[Della] nodded. “You young people don’t pay too much heed to those kinds of things today, but you have to remember that I grew up in a time with stark right and wrong. Heaven and hell stuff. Sin. You don’t use that word, do you, Mr. Anders?”
He couldn’t say that he did …
“Exactly,” she continued … “[My father] prayed for [my mother] all the time. Not that she would come back and love him, but that she would renounce her adultery and honor her vows so that she could be restored to salvation.”
She was right. He didn’t know anyone who used language like that. It was something from another century.

There is more than one mystery in Before the Rain Falls, and more than a few plot twists. Di Maio sets the hook in the preface, earning our attention. However, the pace lags and action is sparse. She nails the small, border-town vibe. Di Maio’s writing ranges from charming to heartbreaking, and the developing romance between Mick and Paloma is sweet, the flirty dialogue cute and fun.

“Is this the Mick Anders who trudged into town a couple of weeks ago with a chip on his shoulder and tassels on his shoes?” [Paloma] leaned over and pointed to the raffia flip-flops he was wearing.
“That Mick Anders? I don’t know the man.”
“Oh, you should have seen him. Good-looking guy. But arrogant. Really arrogant. Went on and on about some weird food in Asia.”
“Sounds like an ass. Glad I didn’t run into him.”

Di Maio’s characters are sympathetic. In addition to Della Lee and Mick Anders, there’s Paloma Vega, a doctor who left a sister and grandmother in Puerto Pesar to follow her dreams, and Mercedes Vega, Paloma’s teenage sister, resentful of Paloma’s abandonment and restless for her own chance to escape—another tale of two sisters.

In the end, the pieces fit together a little too nicely. Before the Rain Falls is uneven, but evidences Di Maio’s potential.

Originally published in Lone Star Literary Life.

An elderly woman just released from a life sentence for killing her sister. A lovable young journalist in disgrace, who is sent to interview her as a bit of a joke on the part of his editor. A young doctor briefly home to care for her grandmother and young sister. When these three fascinating characters meet in the town of Puerto Pesar (which translates very appropriately to Port of Regret) there is nothing NOT to love. Beautiful writing, well developed characters, and a mystery that takes us on an emotional journey into a woman's prison and out again.. Very enjoyable.

Those looking for a sweet, light romance will find it here and come away happy. It was just published, and you can get it now. Thanks go to Net Galley and Lake Union Publishing for the DRC, which I received free of charge in exchange for an honest review.

The story is divided between three protagonists, and the narrative alternates to include each of their points of view. Two of the characters are Della Lee, a very elderly woman recently paroled from a life term in prison for the murder of her sister, and Paloma Vega, a young doctor that’s returned to her hometown on the Texas border to take care of family business.

One thing that drew me to the title is that the most important characters are both women, and it is they that prove to be the most dynamic. Our third character, Mick Anders, is a journalist seeking Della’s story. He is changed by it, and yet really his character exists as a foil for the two women. So far, so good.

Because the premise starts with the woman who’s spent her entire adult life in prison, I was expecting something grittier. Women in prison haven’t really made it into a lot of fiction, and so my interest was piqued. I was also hoping for a social justice angle, and to be fair, the teaser promises no such thing, and so to an extent, this disappointment is one I brought on myself. Though Della’s reminiscences as she unspools her memories for Anders recount some of what she went through, it really isn’t a prison story, but the story of Della’s own life and the sacrifice she has made.
The parallels between Della’s life and Paloma’s intrigued me and I was hoping the novel would veer in the direction of literary fiction, some allegory perhaps; something subtle and open to the reader’s interpretation. This isn’t that either. Soon the parallels feed into a tidy package, and the coincidences are just too many. I had reconciled myself to the likelihood that this really would, in fact, be a straight up historical romance, and if the end had been crafted in a more nuanced way I could have given it four stars, but instead it is predictable, and when that happens there can’t be magic, because the Great-And-Powerful-Wizard’s curtain has been pulled away by the unlikeliness of the story. Toto has the curtain in his mouth, and instead of looking at Della, at Paloma, and Nick I am looking Di Maio and saying, Oh come on. Seriously?

Some of the better moments in the story are the side elements, the interaction between Paloma and her sister Mercedes, an adolescent smarting from Paloma’s abandonment when she moved away. Paloma is wooing her back into a sisterly relationship, and her clumsy missteps and the ways in which she corrects herself are resonant and absolutely believable.

Although Della’s back story feels over-the-top to me, her present, the return to her home after seven decades away, the changes in the home and the strangeness of being back in the world and at liberty are also well done. The author does a nice job in crafting Della’s present-day setting and wedding it to her story.

Those looking for a traditional romance, something to pack for a vacation that will leave a warm, fuzzy afterglow will enjoy this novel, and to them I recommend it.

An interesting and engaging story that I found hard to put down. 2 stories that run back and forth in time but become connected in the end. I found the portrait connection a bit confusing and not well explained, but the flow of the story was well paced and developed interesting and diverse characters.

A wonderful follow up to Camille De Maio's debut novel, The Memory of Us. This is the story of Della Lee, who comes home to her small hometown, after serving 70 years for killing her younger sister, Eulia.
It alternates between the 1940s, during the killing and her years of incarceration, and the present, when she returns to her home. Enter Mick, a journalist from Boston, who comes to town to check out a possible story of a weeping portrait that hangs in the local church and a young doctor from New York, returning to the small Texas town, to care for her ailing grandmother. As they meet Della Lee, they feel there is more to her story, and become immersed in learning what transpired! A must read.

From the bestselling author, Camille DiMaio of [[ASIN:1503934756 The Memory of Us: A Novel]], the smashing debut landing on my Top 50 Books of 2016 returns with another stunning follow-up, equally as gripping. An enthralling modern mystery: BEFORE THE RAIN FALLS —Beautifully written and incredibly poignant, a story of love, loss, and redemption. 5 Stars + Top Books of 2017

A tragic tale which will restore your faith and strength of the human spirit to rise despite adversity― A courageous woman who keeps a dark secret and makes tremendous "sacrifices" that will change her family forever. Emotional and intriguing. At the same time— a timeless love story, reminding us that often in our darkest hour, hope shines a candle to light our way.

Set in humid South Texas (author's hometown San Antonio), a dual storyline (almost three), alternating between Della’s dark and horrific experiences of the 1940s; her parents: Herman and Eva, and sister Eula (the beloved songbird); and Paloma (grandmother Abuela) and Mick’s present-day search for answers―paths destined to cross, decades apart.

Two sisters. A death. Two mysterious portraits. One found, another lost. A town in need of hope and much-needed rain. Told in alternating chapters between the 1940s and present day. A washed-up journalist and a young doctor cross paths while searching for the truth behind the mystery murder decades earlier.

Della Lee and Tomas Trujillo had been married only four hours when it happened, their newly minted future ripped apart by an ivory-handled knife. Tomas said he understood why she’d done what she did. But the fairy tales that Della had imagined for them ever since that day were over. Someone had attempted to break that bond. She made a choice that would change her world forever, and alter the path of someone she holds dear.

Texas 1943— Eula Lee had been murdered. The tiny border town was devastated for the second time by the Lee family. The daughter everyone cherished. Della Lee Trujillo was convicted. Guilty of murder in the death of her younger sister.

"The drops of rain make a hole in the stone, not by violence, but by oft falling."—Lucretius

Alternating from Puerto Pesar—Present Day: Della was back in the place that consumed her memories through seventy years in prison. Now, in her nineties. Tomas had lived in the house for a few years until going off to war, but he had the foresight to take care of all the legal bits that Della never had the chance to consider.

It was not until she returned to her childhood home that phantoms and memories stirred her, making it impossible to rest. There were births, deaths, marriages, joys, sorrows that were absorbed into these walls. Did their ghosts mingle, along with those of Herman, Eva, Tomas, and Durla—all watching her this old woman in this old house? The painting, the shrine, the beloved girl. Where was the second one?

She looked back at her life. The forties —when she learned to be a champion, catcher of greased pigs. The fifties— when she discovered a love of reading. The sixties— when she sabotaged her chance at parole. And yet they seemed like yesterday. The days in which her sister was no longer the belle of Puerto Pesar— drawing crowds from around the country to the little church on Sunday mornings. The days instead when Eula resided six feet below the parched soil in the churchyard.

These were her Freedom Days. She would walk around without bars to block the view. That was one kind of freedom. It was the freedom in telling your secrets before it was too late. Her guilt over not being a good enough caregiver for her sister. Della had a story and she was ready to tell it. This would be the Truth Days.

Present Day: Mick Anders, a reporter for the Daily Talk in Boston, looking for a story to revive his career. He is in Texas to research the origins of a church painting depicting a “crying girl”. He is staying at the La Palma Inn the only lodging in the small border town of Puerto Pesar. He is struggling with his own battles.

His editor wanted him to lie low regarding a fiasco with a senator (backstory here). He had been told to work his magic in this Podunk town and turn the story into a Pulitzer winner. Go to Texas until his other deal blew over. Two weeks of leave. His orders were to find a knockout story or he was finished. No per diem of course since this was not a real assignment. He was going to get a story and spin straw into gold and return to the newspaper as the prodigal son.

The area had not had rain for one hundred and eighty-two days. The photo had shown rosaries and holy cards outside the church as people begged for salvation from this hell. Would he discover the mysteries of this family before the rain falls? Before the woman dies without telling her story. He wanted to be the one.

It all boiled down to this: A portrait found in a thrift store and was thought to be leaking tears. The image of a young girl about four years old. Eula Lee, whose father owned the fish cannery that had been the town’s largest employer at the time. Her sister had murdered her years later. Della Lee had gone to prison and recently returned to the family house after seventy years of incarceration.

However, what was the real story?

Mick meets Paloma Vega by chance, who is back in her hometown to help her grandmother recover from a heart attack. An unexpected meeting. He does not realize how this girl and her family will change his life.

Present Day: Paloma Vega. She had moved away ten years earlier. She was a bona fide New Yorker now and grew up in Puerto Pesar. She had a restless heart. She graduated from high school and received a letter from her father in Connecticut. There was a trust large enough for her college and grad school.She had to leave her sister Mercedes who was only six at the time. At nineteen she left for a new future.

Now a few months away from thirty, she was a different person. Four years at NYU, four more at Columbia for medical school, and a two- year residency and a job offer for a permanent position. Her dad would be proud. Her sister, Mercedes was only sixteen. How was she going to communicate or help her? Who was this creature with the dark eyeliner and darker mood? How would she reach her? She is feeling guilty.

Abuela’s own mother had been a product of the Depression and learned to hoard items for reuse. She had only made four visits in ten years. Not often enough to visit the intricacies of her sister growing up or her grandmother growing old. There was something comforting about returning home, even if you’d dreamed of leaving it. She had done what any girl from a small border would do when her upper-class father offered her a way out; escaped. She had been too young to think twice. Too starry-eyed to feel guilty. Until recently. The hospital had agreed to hold her new position for a month so she could go home and help Mercedes take care Abuela after her heart attack. This was the woman who had raised her while her own mother flitted in and about town.

Abuela needed her, even if she denied it. So here she was. She could never repay her grandmother for all she had done raising Paloma and then Mercedes while holding down three jobs to do so. Paloma quickly realized the toll her absence had taken on her sister. What could she do about it in the short period of three weeks while here?

Past 1943: The author takes us back to Goree State Farm for Women— Della Lee Trujillo was sentenced to life in prison, with the possibility of parole in twenty years and would live out those days at Goree State Farm in Huntsville. At the prison, there she met the musical group and friends, the Goree Girls. The good, bad and ugly. Not much good. Tomas had said he would wait for her. She drove him away.

On the way to prison, the driver had something else in mind and pulled over at the motel. She had never been with a man, not even her own husband. Reporters wondered why she killed her sister. To others, she was not a victim help by a captor. She was a convicted murderer being lawfully transported by an agent of the state. She was now helpless. The violation. The humiliation. She could not think about the future ahead of her. No one would listen to a murderer.

While in prison . . . she was consumed with darkness. She feared for her life. She was angry with her mother for leaving, with her father for checking out, with her sister for dying. Eddie for raping her. They had all failed her, and because of them, she failed Tomas. Everyone thought she was a murderer. It had been her wedding day. In prison, she could not read his letters. She loved him too much to make him sacrifice his happiness for her.

It was all about Eula. It had always been about her. Della and Eula only two years apart. Essentially, momma and daughter. Eula had an effect, on everyone. She had a fearsome temper. The same look on her mother’s face on that last day at the beach with the painter. An unspoken triumph.

However, was she really a murderer? Whom was she protecting? “Regret. A word she knew intimately. Only three people knew the truth about what happened that day, and two of them resided in this cemetery.”

Present day: Paloma and Mick meet, while in town. . . Two East Coasters here for a brief time. The scandals of the Lee family had been talked about for years. Mick and Paloma discuss speaking with Abuela to find out more about Della Lee. She would know stories to help point him in the right direction. Abuela begins telling what she remembers. She is recently home from the hospital and weak.

Where it all started: She recalls a trip where Eva and the girls and the painter went out of town. Eva packed up and left while Herman was at work and the little girls were in the house alone until he returned. Two young girls, ages six and four. Eva never came back. Herman retreated from everything except his office and the girls had to fend for themselves.

Della Lee was no murderer. Her mother had thought she was innocent. There was no proof and it was complicated by the fact Della pled guilty. However, uncle Tomas was convinced of her innocence. Tomas came back from service defeated by Della rejection. He volunteered for combat and joined the Marines, and turned down a safe post with the army locally. Was Eula like Eva? Carrying on with the boys—rages. But to everyone else a saint?

DiMaio takes us back to the Lee family when they came to Puerto Pesar around the turn of the century. Herman fell for a local girl Eva. She was troubled, beautiful. Some said she was unfaithful. Herman Lee had money. They had a daughter, Della and a few years later another girl named Eura. The mid-twenties and Herman was a slave to keep Eva happy.

Then along came a vagabond from El Paso. He earned his keep as he went along painting landscapes and portraits. They said his name was Teddy Brown. Eva and Teddy caused quite the scandal. The husband was busy with work and she would meet him at the coast. Herman Lee found out something about the painter Teddy Brown and he died in an airplane crash on his way to Europe. A tragedy. Two young girls left alone. Eula’s troubles started when her mother left. The paintings.

Mick is drawn into the story and, Paloma is a real distraction for him. Seeing the painting, and going to her grandmother’s house. However, he was here for a reason. He needed to meet Della Lee, now ninety years old and lived alone. This woman seemed normal. How strange it must be for her at this age reentering the real world. He had come originally to see the portrait of her sister. Santa Bonita. He soon comes to respect this woman. Why had her mother gone away for ten years and then go find her? They lost a mother so young and a father so tragically.

“Things aren’t always as they seem. Don’t assume you know everything you might have read about me is the truth. Only I know the truth. And the only other two who did have long since died.”

An exclusive interview with the woman herself. Incarcerated for seven decades. He needed this knockout story. He felt alive. Difficult to think this woman could have murdered anyone. Mick must learn the mysteries behind Eula. He hoped she could hang on and have enough strength to get it all out.

"Sacrifice is sanctifying." Mick was learning this family was about religion. However, it was cryptic. What drove her to murder her sister if so much had gone into protecting her? A story which needed to be told before it could be snatched away, as so many other things in here past. Holding on to things so deeply driving you to do things that seem inexplicable.

So much fun reading about the tales of the Goree Girls All Strings Band! The friendships of these women. The letters from poor Tomas pouring out his heart. A doctor and a journalist pulled into this saga. Two people from the East Coast, visiting a small border town and transformed by a place that did not even show up on most maps.

At 95% was dying to learn what happened that night. This lady can write folks! She has a knack for tugging at your heart strings and never letting go. A beautifully told, tragic tale. Women enduring facing insurmountable hardships. Loved ones separated. Choices and consequences which trickle down through generations. A sacrifice. A strong parallel between the generations.

With memorable characters, and conceptual depth, and heart-pounding tension, DiMaio’s novel is one that simply unputdownable. I love this author! From her first book, I knew this one possessed a God-given talent. A gifted storyteller.

Both timeline stories were equally developed, absorbing, and engaging. The characters jump off the page and you feel their intense pain, agony, and difficult decisions. Both heartbreaking and a very satisfying ending. This saga and its characters will remain with long after the book ends.

There are also religious tones with both her books regarding Roman Catholicism and its distinctive beliefs including certain doctrines, beliefs, and sacraments: Other distinctive Catholic practices include veneration of saints, use of the crucifix, and the use of rosary beads in prayer.

Through all the pain, loss and tragedy there is hope and life gives us surprises and something beauty out of tragedy when we least expect. For fans of historical, women’s, literary and contemporary fiction as well as romance, suspense, and modern mystery.Perfect for fans of Nicholas Sparks, Charles Martin (Long Way Gone), Richard Paul Evans, Fredrik Backman, Catherine Ryan Hyde, Karen White, Kristin Hannah, Katherine Hughes (The Secret and The Letter), Sarah Jio, Kate Morton, Lisa Wingate, and Diane Chamberlain.

I adore the author’s book trailers: They are powerful, moving, emotional and will immediately draw you into the lives of her characters. Oh, and the stunning cover . . . What a great way to spend a Saturday! Set aside the time—Unputdownable. Spectacular—another smashing hit by Camille DiMaio! Move this one to the top of your reading list. In the meantime, if you have not read The Memory of Us, highly recommend. Would love to see both these played out on the wide screen. Movie worthy!

A special thank you to the author, Lake Union, and NetGalley for an early reading copy. JDCMustReadBooks

I purchased this book from Amazon to read. All opinions are my own. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Before The Rain Falls by Camille Di Maio. Guys!!!!! I have absolutely no idea why I waited so long to read this book! It's been on my Amazon wishlist for over a year and I finally ordered it and it sat on a shelf for nearly a month. OH MY GOSH!!!!! If you have this one sitting, pick it up! NOW! This review won't do the book justice no matter how many words I say, you just need to buy it or borrow it and read it! Set in Texas 1943 a woman is convicted of the murder of her sister and sentenced to life in prison, released seventy years later she discovers life was never as it seemed. Set in Texas present day Dr. Paloma Vega has rushed from New York to care for her ailing Grandmother and struggle to figure out what sort of child her younger sister has grown up to become. Journalist Mick Anders gets suspended from his big time Boston Newspaper job and finds himself in small town Texas scraping for a story of a crying painting. All of them looking for answers of life, existence, love, and family. The hot, humid place of Puerto Pesar (translates to Port of Regret) isn't near the water and holds more secrets than the town ever thought possible.

This is a wonderful story. Part mystery, part romance, and all page-turner, it kept me wondering what secrets would be revealed next.

BEFORE THE RAIN FALLS is a stunning dual timeline story about love, loss, guilt, and the ways in which family hurts and heals itself. From the first page, I was engrossed in the lives of the characters, the parched setting, and the central mystery. What really happened between two sisters in the 1940s, and why does it matter today? So good!

great read