First published 2023
Christaphine is twenty and newly married to Tommy in 1964. She wants to build a life with her husband, but everything changes when she finds Tommy and his friends about to commit a terrible crime. She stops them, knowing this choice means she can never return home. So she vanishes completely. Fifty years pass. Clemmie sits in Sunday service at Trinity Hill Church when her neighbor Muffin pulls her away. Muffin has spotted a man across the aisle, someone she believes is connected to her dangerous past. Clemmie thinks Muffin is overreacting until Muffin tells her what really happened in that South Carolina field decades ago. The story reveals that Muffin has been hiding dark secrets all these years. Clemmie realizes she has secrets too. Both women understand that some truths carry consequences too severe to risk exposure.
Genres: fiction, drama, 20th-century, mystery, crime, contemporary
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: deception, secrets, unreliable-narrator
Setting: South Carolina, Trinity Hill Church
Period: 1964, Fifty years later
272 pages · Paperback · Poisoned Pen Press
Content warnings: violence