We read this book for our monthly book club and immensely enjoyed every page. It is a book that is easy to read, but once you're finished you are left with all of the emotions of each character. It is so easy to close the back cover and immediately open it back up. Each story stands alone, but when put together with the others tells a story of a resilient community and characters to match. Barsha Roy Chowdhury140 4

‘The Appointed Hour’ by Susanne Davis is a collection of interconnected short stories and highlights the lives of the people living in rural America. The stories are beautifully written and smartly intertwined with one another. The characters are carved well and feels so real. Some stories were pretty intense, some disturbing while some others give a hope that humanity will bind us together.

Young women go missing and later their bodies were found in a horrible state scattered on quite corners of Connecticut. Their murderer being a happy-go-lucky man who was sexually abused in his childhood by his own uncle.

A tattoo artist fights to live with dignity. He respects his art and wants people to respect his work too. He reluctantly draws a tattoo on a girl’s chest when the shop owner asked him to do so. But, when he started his own business and the same girl visited him, he refuses to draw any tattoo on that girl.

These stories are set in Connecticut, based on the lives of ordinary people living a complicated life. Each of the characters are distinctive and drawn so accurately that you will feel yourself being dragged deep into their lives. I was emotionally attached to each of the story.
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This group of connected stories shines a spotlight on rural America.

A woman walks into a tattoo shop, wanting a large tattoo across her chest for a less-than-intelligent reason. The male tattoo artist reluctantly fulfills her wish. A few years later, when the artist has his own shop, the same woman wants another tattoo. This time he says no; the art outweighs the money.

A local handyman, who has acquired the nickname Useless John, goes to a woman's house to install a hardwood floor in her kitchen. She just happens to look exactly his wife who died several years previously. He was driving when there was a bad auto accident.

A descendant of the Mayflower attempts to deal with a monument to an ancestor. A woman with post-traumatic stress disorder finds a group of other women to help her regain her voice. There is a story about dealing with HIV. An actress in the 1950's who got to kiss Elvis Presley on screen decided, in later years, to become a nun. She is now known as Mother Agnes.

These stories take place in Connecticut, but they could take place anywhere. Individually, these stories are excellent. Put them together, and this collection nears the level of Amazing. It is extremely highly recommended. Susan KietzmanAuthor 5 books160

I read many more novels than I do short stories. And so whenever I pick up a collection, I welcome the change in pace and structure. To tell a story, as Susanne Davis does, in five to fifteen pages, is an art - a quirky, fascinating art. Her short stories had me feeling as if I had just joined two people who were halfway through a conversation. But six or seven sentences in, I was all caught up. Because Davis lives and writes and sets her stories in Connecticut, it's easy for me to picture where the action occurs. And her characters, many with long family histories in the state, are deep and true and accurately drawn - they feel people I know or ought to know. There are some disturbing stories, but the pain they depict is as much a part of life, if not more, than the lighter tales. And her dry wit can be traced throughout the collection. Patricia311 1 follower

Susanne Davis has a lovely collection of short stories with interesting characters. Some of the characters pop into other stories as familiar faces weaving the lives of many in the same area of Connecticut. My favorites: Object of Desire, the Law of Gravity.

I had the honor of taking a writing course from Susanne in Hartford at the Mark Twain House. She's a wonderful writer and teacher.2020 Kathleen M. Young16

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