Synopses & Reviews
When a deep-rooted memory suddenly surfaces, Elizabeth Burns becomes obsessed with the long-ago disappearance of her childhood friend April Cassidy. Driven to investigate, Elizabeth discovers a thirty-five-year-old newspaper article revealing the details that had been hidden from her as a child: April's mother, Adele, drove with her two young daughters deep into the woods where she killed first them and then herself.
Elizabeth, now a mother herself, tracks down everyone Adele Cassidy's neighbor, her psychiatrist, her sister who might give her the insight necessary to understand how a mother could commit such a monstrous crime.
Elizabeth's investigation leads her back to herself: her compromised marriage, her demanding children, her increasing self-doubt, her desire for more out of her own life, and finally to a fearsome reckoning with what it means to be a mother and wife.
Review
"Although the novel's characters hold our interest, Kogan's fiction lacks the fire of her racy memoir, Shutterbabe....She seems more at home writing about real-life international matters than life on the domestic front." Booklist
Synopsis
When a deep-seated memory suddenly surfaces, Elizabeth Burns becomes obsessed with the long-ago disappearance of her childhood friend April Cassidy. Driven to investigate, Elizabeth discovers a thirty-five-year-old newspaper article revealing the details that had been hidden from her as a child--shocking revelations about April's mother, Adele.
Elizabeth, now herself a mother, seeks out anyone who might help piece together the final months, days, and hours of this troubled woman's life, but the answers yield only more questions. And those questions lead back to Elizabeth's own life: her own compromised marriage, her increasing self-doubt and dissatisfaction, and finally, a fearsome reckoning with what it means to be a wife and mother.
About the Author
Deborah Copaken Kogan's first book, Shutterbabe: Adventures in Love and War, was a Barnes & Noble Discover selection, was serialized in Talk magazine, and was optioned for film. Her writing and photographs have appeared in the New York Times, The New Yorker, O: The Oprah Magazine, Time, Newsweek, Self, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, Paris Match, Stern, and der Spiegel. She was an Emmy Award-winning television producer at ABC and for Dateline NBC.