Hard Headed Woman - Hardcover

by Howard Gimple (Author)

The hard-headed woman is Hannah Johansson, a young woman who has gone through several jobs and relationships before coming home for her father's memorial. The new auditorium has been named after her father, Axel Johannson, who devoted many years to the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. Attending is the who's who in environmental foundations, senators, and government officials. Hannah goes to the front to speak, she thanks those in attendance and then says " I killed him", as she falls to the floor. Her cousin Phil, a coroner from Upstate New York who From then on Hannah tries to do the right thing and gets thwarted at every turn. She takes her father's ashes to the Refuge and gets threatened by the newer inhabitants as she is trespassing, she is arrested after filing a report about the killing of her aunt's cat but cannot get anyone to listen to her about the Refuge. Hannah enlists the help of friends: Jacqui who used to work with her father; a long-time friend Bette and her cousin, Phil. Hannah and Bette went to many locations to discover more about what the Refuge has turned into. Hannah finds out from Phil, who took a blood sample from her father's arm, that her father had poison in him when he died. Hannah fights anyone who gets in her way trying to find the answers that she so badly needs to know.

Hannah is suffering, she's exasperated and she's hard-headed. You can just feel her frustration oozing out as she asks for help, for someone to believe her, and to find the truth. The tension builds throughout due to the dangerous situations she keeps running into and how she struggles against her own body's health. The story keeps the reader guessing about what else Hannah will have to deal with during her quest for information. I enjoyed the camaraderie between Hannah and her friend Bette who are the yin and yang throughout their crazy adventures. And there are plenty of surprises to the end to keep you reading faster and faster.