First published 2006
Alan Benning has built a successful law practice, but guilt consumes him. Fifteen years ago, as a troubled teenager on a family vacation to Cape Cod, he encountered a young girl struggling to retrieve her kite from a tree. Instead of helping her, he sexually assaulted her. When she screamed, he panicked and struck her violently to silence her, then fled back to his family's camper. They packed up and left as if nothing had occurred. Now Alan cannot escape one torturous question: did he kill that girl? The uncertainty drives him to return to that quiet stretch of Cape Cod beach where it all happened. He needs to know the truth about what he did that summer day. But discovering the facts about his past may force him to confront a justice that arrives late but arrives nonetheless.
Genres: fiction, mystery, crime, psychological-thriller
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: Cape Cod
Period: 15 Years Ago
250 pages · Paperback · Hard Case Crime
Content warnings: sexual-assault, violence