First published 2012
A little girl appears in Central Park with blood on her shoulder and an impossible story. She tells anyone who will listen that the blood fell from the sky while she searched for her uncle who transformed into a tree. People dismiss her tale as childish fantasy until police discover an actual corpse hidden in the park's branches. Detective Mallory returns to the Special Crimes Unit after a three-month absence and recognizes something familiar in this strange child. Both are damaged in ways that create an instant connection. The girl becomes Mallory's guide into a web of violence spanning fifteen years. What starts as a single mysterious death reveals a pattern of murders, blackmail, and calculated cruelty. Mallory must untangle crimes that only someone with her particular history can fully comprehend. The case forces her to confront not just the killers but the darkness she shares with a child who sees the world through similarly wounded eyes.
Genres: mystery, crime, detective, psychological-thriller
Vibes: dark, emotional, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: damaged-protagonist, found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Central Park, New York
Period: Contemporary
373 pages · Hardcover · Putnam Adult
Content warnings: child-abuse, mental-illness