First published 2015
Tess Monaghan takes what should be routine security work. Melisandre Harris Dawes has returned to Baltimore after twelve years in exile. She was found not guilty by reason of insanity for an incomprehensible crime, then fled the country and abandoned her two daughters. Now she wants to film a documentary about winning back her teenage children. Tess needs the money and the client comes through family connections. But Melisandre unsettles her. The woman radiates intelligence and confidence, yet someone is sending her threatening messages. Tess receives cryptic notes too. She cannot tell if Melisandre is a master manipulator or a mother driven temporarily mad. Is she protecting a victim or enabling a predator? When murder strikes and Melisandre becomes the prime suspect, Tess must dig for truth. The investigation forces her to examine her own fears about motherhood and question what divides sanity from madness. She discovers how far rational people will go to protect what matters most to them.
Genres: mystery, crime, contemporary, thriller
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-drama, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Baltimore
Period: Contemporary
303 pages · Hardcover · William Morrow
Content warnings: mental-illness