First published 2007
Owen Patterson craves normalcy, but his wife grieves endlessly for her murdered brother while his in-laws obsess over their dead son. The killer, Henry Joseph Raven, sits in prison, yet Owen believes justice remains incomplete. He devises a twisted plan to balance the scales himself. Writing under the false identity of Lily Hazelton, Owen begins corresponding with the murderer. His scheme is simple but cruel: make Raven fall in love, then destroy him emotionally. As the letters flow, Owen draws on fragments of his troubled past to craft Lily's persona. He weaves in memories of his difficult childhood and his cousin Eileen, a suicide who became his first love. The correspondence becomes an elaborate psychological game between predator and prey. But as Owen pursues his mission of revenge, the lines between his real identity and his fictional creation begin to blur. His quest for justice transforms into something far more dangerous. The emotional toll of his deception threatens to unravel not just his plan, but his grip on reality itself.
Genres: fiction, suspense, mystery, crime, contemporary, psychological-thriller
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, psychological-game, unreliable-narrator
260 pages · Paperback · Other Press
Content warnings: emotional-abuse, murder