In a riveting and unputdownable thriller from the Queen of Suspense, a young woman is ensnared into returning to a place she had wanted to leave behind forever—her childhood home.
At the age of ten, Liza Barton shot her mother, trying desperately to protect her from her estranged stepfather, Ted Cartwright. Despite his claim that the shooting was a deliberate act, the Juvenile Court ruled the death an accident. Many people, however, agreed with Cartwright, and the tabloids compared the child to the infamous murderess Lizzie Borden, pointing even to the similarity of their names.
To erase her past, her adoptive parents change her name to Celia. At age twenty-eight, a successful interior designer in Manhattan, she marries a childless sixty-year-old widower, Laurence Foster, and they have a son. Before their marriage, she reveals to him her true identity. Two years later, on his deathbed, he makes her swear never to tell anyone so that their son, Jack, will not carry the stigma of her past.
Two years later, Celia is happily remarried. Her peace of mind is shattered when her new husband surprises her with a gift—the house where she killed her mother. And it soon becomes clear that there is someone in the community knows Celia.
More and more, there are signs that someone in the community knows Celia’s true identity. When the real estate agent who sold them the house is brutally murdered and Celia is the first on the crime scene, she becomes a suspect. As she fights to prove her innocence, she has no idea that she and her son, Jack, are now the targets of a killer.
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"Ok, this book scared the petoot out of me, but I really get scared easily so that isn't saying much. I still liked it though. It is about a little 10 year old girl named Liza Barton who shoots her mother while trying to protect her from her violent step father. The death is ruled accidental, but the tabloits still call her the murderess Lizzie Borden. Her adoptive parents change her name to Celia and try to cover up her past. She grows up, has a brief marriage and a son, her husband dies and she remarries a young lawyer. Her life is happy until her birthday when he presents her with the gift of a new home. The home she grew up in and shot her mom in. There are a chain of events that are horrible after that and that is the part that scared me. A good read though if you like mystery books!"
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Erin (4 out of 5 stars)