Sandra K. Griffith
Author Interview - Sandra K. Griffith
Author of One Beautiful Year of Normal
Thirty-year old ghostwriter August Caine’s life was terribly altered by the unsolved murder of her father, Davis Caine, on her eighth birthday and the onset of her mother’s (Claire) debilitating mental illness following his death. A mental illness that left her paranoid, non-communicative, reclusive, and completely dependent on her daughter. August is rescued by an aunt she wasn’t aware existed at the age of eleven, only to be snatched away by her mother the following year and forced into a life of hiding. August tries to build her own life but over the next twenty years largely remains tethered to her mother’s issues. This changes when she gets a call from a stranger that sets in motion a series of events that allow her to unravel the family secrets, discover who killed her father, and gain a better understanding of her mother’s issues.
The caller informs August that her beloved aunt Helen, has died, and although August had not seen or spoken to her paternal aunt for over eighteen years, she is devastated by this news because she’d been told by her mother that Helen died in a car accident a decade earlier. August knows her mother suffers from delusions, but she’ll question if there was an intentional, more sinister explanation for this lie. Worse yet, she’ll wonder if Helen, the person she once idolized, had a role in this deception.
As August makes arrangements to return to her aunt’s home in Savannah, she reflects on her life in terms of before, during and after Helen. Before Helen, August was a grieving, eight-year-old girl left to manage on her own with a mother who’d become completely dysfunctional. The during Helen phase began three years later when Helen appeared at their house in New York, committed Claire to a psychiatric facility and took August home to live with her. With the exception of a few strange encounters with a woman who periodically appeared at her aunt’s house, August had loved her life there. The after Helen phase began a year later when her even more paranoid mother checked herself out of the hospital, forced August into a life of hiding in her native France and cut off all ties from their old life.
Once back in Savannah, August is relieved to discover her aunt had not known her whereabouts, had not been part of Claire’s deception, and had looked for her for several years. She also learns that her aunt had a decades long relationship with a now deceased woman named Katraine Evander and August realizes this was the same strange woman she’d encountered as a child. She is saddened by this discovery because she suspects Helen must have felt the need to keep her relationship with Katraine hidden from her.
Synopsis Page 2: One Beautiful Year of Normal
As August is preparing to return to Paris, she finds a letter Helen left for her which chronicles the tragic situation that tore their family apart. She explains that while August may remember her father (Davis) as a photojournalist, he had once been employed by the Department of Defense as a physicist, and in that role had been assigned to work with Albert Berman and his group of French scientists tasked in the 1970s with developing France’s nuclear program. Davis traveled to France many times over the years with the dual purpose of assisting the Berman Group and to convince several of the scientists to relocate to the United States to work at the newly formed Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA). Davis became close with the entire Berman family and was eventually able to recruit one of Berman’s daughters, a brilliant physicist named Katraine Berman-Evander. The same woman her aunt later became romantically involved with.
August learns that a few months after Katraine arrived in Washington, her entire family including her siblings, mother and young daughter, Alina, were on their way from France for a visit, when their chartered plane collided with an incoming jet. Katraine, overwhelmed with grief, alone, and no longer able to work, showed up at Helen’s house in Savannah, and although the two had only met once through Davis, this began their thirty-year relationship.
August also learns not all of Katraine’s siblings died on the plane that day. Her younger half-sister, Claire, was already living in the United States and married to Davis Caine. Katraine’s grief at the loss of her family, especially her daughter, Alina, quickly turned to anger. She felt Davis had pushed her into relocating to the United States. Had he not, her family would still be alive. She was furious at her half-sister for marrying the man she felt responsible for her family’s death. Helen, caught in the middle, chose to side with Katraine and cut off all contact with her brother and his new family. In her final comments, Helen writes that she always believed Katraine’s ex-husband and father of their daughter, also blamed Davis and that he murdered him because of it.
Synopsis Page 3: One Beautiful Year of Normal:
Still stunned by this tragic story and by learning her mother had a half-sister, who was in a thirty-year relationship with her father’s sister, August returns to Paris hoping to get more information from her mother. More than that, she wants to ask the question she’s avoided for twenty-three years-who killed her father? Claire refuses to answer at first but finally relents and tells her Katraine is responsible. August is crushed by this. She doesn’t want to believe Helen could have maintained a relationship with someone she knew murdered her brother. August argues with her mother, telling her that Helen believed Katraine’s ex-husband/father of her daughter killed him. Claire informs August that is impossible because Davis was Alina’s father and that Katraine didn’t kill him because of her grief, but rather from jealously that he left her for the younger half-sister she already hated.
Later that night, Claire disappears from the hospital in Paris, just as she had eighteen years earlier in New York. August moves to Savannah, determined to make a life for herself and to find out if her aunt Helen knew, or least suspected, Katraine was responsible for her father’s death. August ultimately decides she’s going to have to choose what to believe and she chooses to believe Helen was naïve and unaware.
Two years later, August is married and giving birth to twins when her mother shows up at the hospital. The two had not seen each other since that day when Claire disappeared. August has a near-fatal embolism during the delivery and Claire stays to help her recover. August is glad to have her back in her life, and while hopeful for the future, knows her mother will never overcome her psychological issues.
Author Interview - Sandra K. Griffith
Author I draw inspiration from:
So many! I absolutely fell in love with John Berendt's non-fiction book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and after reading it knew I wanted to write a novel set in Savannah.
I love literary southern writers James Burke and Pat Conroy.
I get giddy when I see a new release by Karen Slaughter, Robert Crais, Harlan Coben, or Lee Child.
Author Interview - Sandra K. Griffith | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book:
On my screened in back porch in Tybee Island Georgia, especially when it's in the upper 70's and breezy, my dogs are with me, the marsh birds are squawking, and the dolphins are jumping a few feet away.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with:
Jack Reacher in any of Lee Child's 29 novels. I figure Reacher could knock the door off and get us out of there.
Author Interview - Sandra K. Griffith | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author:
The late 1980s when I was majoring in psychology and read my first Jonathan Kellerman novel. That was the first time I realized I could combine my two passions. For those not familiar with him, he is a psychologist and the protagonist in his books is as well.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook:
I like anything visual. I'm not a fan of audiobook and I think it correlates to being a visual learner versus auditory. I like to see the words.
Pen & paper or computer:
Computer for certain! I make so many mistakes and do so many rewrites I would never finish otherwise.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with:
I think the book character I'd be best friends with is the same person I said I'd like to be stuck in an elevator with. Jack Reacher from any of the 29 Lee Child novels. I'd be best friends with him, because he doesn't get overly emotional. You can't hurt his feelings. He's not needy or around too much. He can keep a secret. He doesn't talk you to death, but most importantly he'll do anything for the few people he considers a friend. ANYTHING!
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a:
I've done lots of different things and have loved it all! I'm a psychologist, the co-owner of an
old-fashioned soda fountain in my husband's pharmacy that opened in 1891, the owner of a large behavioral health center that primarily serves adults and children with developmental disorders, and more recently have ventured into a vacation rental/event venue business just outside of Savannah, Georgia. I've always wanted to write novels and regret it took me so long to do so, because if asked over the years what my dream career would be, that would be my answer. I can't think of anything I'd rather do more.
Favorite decade in fashion history:
The late 1940s and early 1950s. Even though I prefer comfort over style and would not
likely wear the dresses from that period, I love the look of them. I especially like that the outfits often had coordinated hats, gloves, purses and accessories.
Place I’d most like to travel:
I'm in awe of Italy. I've been fortunate to tour most the bigger cities like Rome and Florence, but would love to spend visit the smaller, less known places. I love everything about the food, architecture, culture and history of Italy.
My signature drink:
Reisling and coffee (but not at the same time)
Favorite artist:
I try to listen to new music at least once a week and love discovering new artists. (Currently obsessed with Red Clay Strays and Lachune). My favorite artist of all time though is, and always will be, Eddie Vedder/Pearl Jam.
Number one on my bucket list:
I got a late start on writing, and my debut novel took years to complete. It took less than 9 months for me to complete the second one (which is now being edited). I'm looking forward to writing a lot in the upcoming years and hope that it continues to get easier. (And faster).
Find more from the author:
sandrakgriffith.com
About Sandra K. Griffith:
Sandra K. Griffith
Sandra K. Griffith is a licensed psychologist with extensive clinical and forensic experience, an adjunct professor at Marshall University and the owner and CEO of a large behavioral health center.
