About the Author

Mary McGarry Morris is the author of several highly acclaimed novels. Entertainment Weekly included Fiona Range on its list of the best books of 2000, Vanished was nominated for both the National Book Award and the Pen/Faulkner Award, A Dangerous Woman was made into a feature film starring Debra Winger in 1993, and Songs in Ordinary Time was a 1997 Oprah's Book Club Selection.

Amy Rubinate has narrated over 250 audiobooks and won multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards. Her books have been selected for AudioFile's Best Romance of 2016 list; Booklist's Top 10 Romance, Top 10 Historical Fiction, Editor's Choice Media; and YALSA's Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults. She has a degree in oral interpretation of literature and won state and national awards for poetry reading. A voice actor and singer for over a decade, Amy has narrated many interactive children's books and provided character voices for toys and video games. Amy's work has been featured in the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, AudioFile magazine, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Library Journal.

Reviews

Best-selling author Morris's latest work (after The Last Secret) is intended as a multilayered family narrative complicated by murder, but it fails to deliver. Suffering a financial crisis, the Pecks are forced to sell the family hardware store and are also having problems with their tenant, Dolly Bedelia, a pole dancer at the local strip club. The first half of the book sets up the family drama but is overstuffed with secondary characters and plots. Add to that the not very believable 13-year-old protagonist, Nellie Peck, who witnesses something she shouldn't. The tension in the second half hinges on Nellie's keeping a secret that is so implausible it's like watching a contemporary horror film in which none of the characters owns a cell phone. VERDICT This is a bloated and unbelievable work, lacking in both depth and suspense. It is a tribute to Morris's writing that despite these flaws the novel moves at a brisk pace, and most readers, even those who will be frustrated by it, will finish it. Recommended with reservations for Morris's fans. [See Prepub Alert, 3/14/11.]-Pamela Mann, St. Mary's Coll. of Maryland, St. Mary's City (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.