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Summary
Summary
After a lifetime of hardship, Jessica Thornton finally has the life she's dreamed of: a new marriage to a realtor with burgeoning success; a daughter whose athleticism has won her a scholarship to college; and a freshly-secured grant from her bank to finally complete her own higher education.
Her life today is a complete reversal from the not-too-distant past, when the death of her first husband left her penniless and desperate to provide for her then-newborn child. But after the murder of her children's high school classmate, a series of disturbances brings Jessica to question whether her dreams ever actually came true, or whether they've just been delusions all along . . .
In the days after the murder, suspicion creeps in at every corner, beginning with Jessica's daughter and stepson, who won't tell her where they were on that fateful night. Then she discovers that her husband's business is failing, not growing, and that the stories he's told of meetings with high-powered investors were nothing more than lies. And when a private investigator comes to look into the death of her first husband, her last foundation of truth slips suddenly away.
Author Notes
S. A. Prentiss is the pseudonym of a New York Times bestselling author living and writing in New England.
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Bank teller Jessica Thornton, the heroine of this tantalizing novel of suspense from the pseudonymous Prentiss, and her second husband, Ted Donovan, a real estate agent, live in Warner, Mass., with their teenage children: Jessica's daughter, Emma, and Ted's son, Craig. Though Ted's real estate business is in trouble, Jessica hopes she can help the family financially once she starts taking business courses at the local community college. Then popular Sam Warner, the high school wrestling team captain, is found shot to death in Warner State Forest. With a scion of the town's founder as the victim, the police are pressured to find the killer--fast. Then a police detective shows up and tells Jessica he needs to talk to her and Ted about Emma and Craig. Are things as bad as she fears? Or are they much worse? All she knows is that she has to take action to protect those she loves. Prentiss does a fine job shifting the reader's expectations regarding suspects, motives, and even the crimes committed. Fans of fair play mysteries will be impressed. (Nov.)
Booklist Review
After a lifetime of heartbreak and hardship, things are finally looking up for Jessica Thornton--a loving second marriage, a daughter with a bright future, and a chance for her own long-delayed dream of academic success to come true. But it all starts to unravel in a single night. Her daughter and stepson are implicated in a terrible crime, her marriage is not as perfect as she thought, and a man is asking uncomfortable questions about a painful chapter of her past that she believed she'd put behind her. How far will she go to hold her life together? The intensifying pace as the walls close in on Jessica certainly keeps the pages turning, and the twists and turns that grow out of her unreliable narration may have the reader tempted to go back and see what clues they missed. A solid domestic-thriller debut that vividly illustrates Tolstoy's maxim that "every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."