by Toby Olson
First published 2006
Melinda knows she is dying of cancer. She wants to return to the Cape Cod seaside where she was born before it's too late. Her husband Allen funds their eastward journey by hustling golfers at courses along the way across America's broken landscape. Near Tucson, they join forces with a Pima Indian traveling to the same destination. He needs to help a relative who has legal claims to a golf course built on tribal land at Cape Cod. Allen carries a deadly secret. Richard, a former friend turned drug dealer, is hunting him down for a past betrayal. Richard wants Allen dead and follows their trail with his wife Gerry. The two couples represent mirror images of each other, their lives shaped by different choices. All paths lead to Seaview Links on Cape Cod. The golf course becomes a battleground where old debts come due. Melinda's race against time, Allen's reckoning with his past, and the Pima man's fight for justice collide in violence and resolution.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, mystery, contemporary, thriller
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, mirror-characters, race-against-time
Setting: Cape Cod, Seaview Links, Tucson
Period: Contemporary
314 pages · Paperback · Catapult
Content warnings: terminal-illness, violence