“A moving and compelling story . . . the debut of an utterly original voice.”

–Carol Goodman, author of The Ghost Orchid

I only got one birthday present, and as it turned out, it was a gift of such importance, opening it should have sent psychic shivers through me. But I merely thought it a curiosity, vaguely creepy but nothing threatening. Not a portent.

Gina Paletta should have been used to upheaval. From her childhood in a small southern town to her career in Manhattan’s glamorous modeling world to sudden, unplanned motherhood, Gina has forever struggled to keep her life under control. Now, at thirty-three–her “year of waking up”–she has moved with her young sons to upstate New York and reinvented herself as a college professor. At last she can nurse the fragile hope of safety, the hope of security.

But Gina learns that security is an illusion when a pair of police detectives arrive at her doorstep. Two of Gina’s students have posted salacious photographs of her on a website. Even more troubling, these young men are suspects in a local murder. Beneath the campus elms, amid the ivied masonry of the collegiate buildings, and in the libraries where she secrets herself from the world, Gina Paletta must now contend with a new sensation: terror.

As the tension rises, Gina turns to her family and friends, only to discover lies and violence beneath placid surfaces. Fearful for her safety and that of her children, determined to guard the new life she has built, Gina comes to rely on the company and protection of one of the detectives assigned to her case. Yet even as their relationship grows more complicated, the danger around them mounts–and Gina finds herself marshaling reserves of strength and resolve she never dreamed existed.

Riveting and hypnotic, lyrical and tense, Every Secret Thing is a remarkable debut: a provocative psychological drama about love, guilt, fear, and every secret thing that binds us together.

"Shaara's uneven debut, a romantic crime thriller, focuses on the perils of Gina Paletta, a former supermodel and 33-year-old widowed mother of endearing twin boys. Yale-educated Gina teaches the history of theology at Tenway University, which is a two-hour drive from Manhattan in a vague locale that could be New Jersey or upstate New York. Two students, Tim Solomon and Jason Dettwiler, whom the police suspect of murdering a friend, enter photos from her lingerie-modeling days onto an Internet site, then stalk her. Two attractive NYPD detectives, Tommy Galloway and Russell Barnes, arrive to investigate and protect her (neither logistics nor jurisdictions matter). Most of Gina's large family resent and hate Gina, apparently because she's smart, gorgeous and had a glamorous career. The off-and-on romance between Gina and Tommy propels the plot more than the police work. Unfortunately, weak character motivation and too many subplots muddy this novel by the daughter of Pulitzer Prize — winner Michael Shaara and the sister of historical novelist Jeff Shaara. (July)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Lyrical and seductive, this expertly crafted novel about a beautiful university professor menaced by a stalker marks the debut of an astonishing new talent. Fans of Carol Goodman will relish this artfully imagined work.

Lila Shaara completed her B.A. in religious studies at Duke University, then received a master’s degree in archaeology and a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh. She lives in western Pennsylvania with her husband, two children, two cats, and six fish. This is her first novel.