by Joy Fielding
First published 2025
Linda Davidson faces grief and loneliness at seventy-six. Her husband has died, her best friend battles dementia, and her daughter Kleo and son-in-law Mick have moved in to help. Their constant arguments make everything worse. Linda escapes to Legacy Place, the memory care facility where her friend lives. There she meets Jenny Cooper, a ninety-two-year-old patient who shares a disturbing confession. Jenny claims she kills people, targeting men who have wronged her. Linda assumes the old woman's mind has failed her. But Jenny speaks with startling clarity during their conversations, describing victim after victim in precise detail. When another patient dies at Legacy Place, everyone accepts it as natural. Linda cannot shake her doubts. The death looks ordinary to the staff and other families. Jenny continues her confessions with the same unsettling lucidity. Linda must decide what she believes about her new friend's dark admissions.
Genres: fiction, mystery, contemporary, thriller
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Legacy Place
Period: 21st-century
338 pages · Hardcover · Ballantine Books
Content warnings: mental-illness