First published 1996
Valerie Vincent works as a companion to a disabled woman, struggling to make ends meet as a single mother. Her carefully structured life collapses when tragedy strikes twice in one devastating blow. Someone murders her babysitter, leaving Valerie reeling from the violent crime. Then a woman appears at the police station claiming to be Valerie herself and walks away with her daughter. The authorities release the child to this imposter, leaving the real Valerie powerless and desperate. She must navigate a system that no longer recognizes her identity while racing against time to find her missing daughter. The killer remains at large, the false Valerie has vanished without a trace, and no one believes her story. Valerie faces an impossible choice between trusting the police who failed to protect her family and taking matters into her own hands. Every hour that passes puts her daughter in greater danger. She discovers that someone has been watching her family, planning this elaborate deception. The nightmare forces her to question everyone around her and confront how far she will go to save the person she loves most.
Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, contemporary
Vibes: dark, emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: deception, missing-person, unreliable-narrator
481 pages · Hardcover · Thorndike Pr
Content warnings: murder, violence