First published 1995
Deborah Knott practices law in North Carolina, where her father once ran bootleg liquor through the backwoods. The locals know her family history and trust her judgment about the past. When eighteen-year-old Gayle Whitehead approaches Deb, she brings a request that will drag up old secrets. Gayle wants someone to find out who killed her mother Janie, murdered when Gayle was still a baby. The case went cold years ago. Deb visits the landowner where Janie's body was discovered and starts asking questions the police never pursued. She learns that Janie led a complicated life with multiple relationships that scandalized the community. As Deb reconstructs the victim's final months, she discovers a woman whose behavior made enemies. The investigation stalls until violence strikes again. Only when a second killing occurs does Deb see the connections she missed. The truth about Janie's death lies buried in family loyalties and small-town grudges that have festered for years.
Genres: historical-fiction, mystery, crime, legal-thriller
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-drama, unreliable-narrator
Setting: North Carolina
Period: 20th-century
352 pages · Hardcover · Headline Book Publishing