by Andrew Gross
First published 2014
Hilary Blum drives down a quiet suburban road when she witnesses a car crash ahead of her. The vehicle careens off the road and strikes a tree. She stops to help and finds the driver dead. Inside the wreckage sits a satchel containing five hundred thousand dollars in cash. Hilary has just lost her job. Her husband abandoned the family. She struggles to pay for her son's special education needs. He has Asperger's syndrome and requires expensive care. The money could solve every problem crushing her family. In one moment of desperation, this responsible woman makes a choice that drags her into deadly territory. The cash connects to a twenty year old murder and powerful people who will kill to protect their secrets. Hurricane Sandy has devastated the area around her. An elderly woman has vanished in the storm's aftermath. Hilary teams with a Staten Island detective who is fighting his own battles from the disaster. Together they must expose enemies who view murder as an acceptable cost of silence. Hilary risks everything she loves to survive forces that the stolen money has unleashed against her.
Genres: suspense, crime, contemporary, mystery-thriller
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: desperate-measures, high-stakes
Setting: Staten Island, Suburban Road
Period: Hurricane Sandy
325 pages · Hardcover · William Morrow
Content warnings: anxiety, depression, mental-illness