Staff Pick
When Wyn Davies survives a rape and attempted murder at the age of 13, she buries the trauma deep inside. As an adult, now the mother of a four-year old girl, and in a marriage that is teetering on the edge of broken, Wyn flees to a friend's dilapidated house located on a small island off the coast of Maine. Wyn needs time and distance from her husband, her parents, and the impending specter of her rapist being granted a new trial based on recently uncovered evidence. Packing up her daughter and her paints and canvases, Wyn settles in to begrudgingly finish a commissioned painting that will match her client's couch. She meets the odd (sinister?) couple who own the mansion next door, discovers a box of undeveloped film hidden in the basement, and receives a chilling email, all the while desperate to ease the continual panic she feels simmering underneath her skin.
The Golden Hour speaks to the horror of sexual assault, the despair of a relationship unraveling, the ability of the past to invade the present, the reasons lying is sometimes the only choice, the burden of secrets, art as a commodity, and the oppressive nature of fear. Greenwood is a master storyteller, able to smoothly unearth the grit and ugliness beneath the placid veneer of human nature. Excellent! Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Richly told and hauntingly beautiful, The Golden Hour was impossible to put down. --Heather Gudenkauf, New York Times & USA Today bestselling author
On a spring afternoon long ago, thirteen-year-old Wyn Davies took a shortcut through the woods in her New Hampshire hometown and became a cautionary tale. Now, twenty years later, she lives in New York, on the opposite side of a duplex from her ex, with their four-year-old daughter shuttling between them. Wyn makes her living painting commissioned canvases of birch trees to match her clients furnishings. But the nagging sense that she has sold her artistic soul is soon eclipsed by a greater fear. Robby Rousseau, who has spent the past two decades in prison for a terrible crime against her, may be released based on new DNA evidence unless Wyn breaks her silence about that afternoon.
To clear her head, refocus her painting, and escape an even more present threat, Wyn agrees to be temporary caretaker for a friend s new property on a remote Maine island. The house has been empty for years, and in the basement Wyn discovers a box of film canisters labeled Epitaphs and Prophecies. Like time capsules, the photographs help her piece together the life of the house s former owner, an artistic young mother, much like Wyn. But there is a mystery behind the images too, and unraveling it will force Wyn to finally confront what happened in those woods and perhaps escape them at last.
A compelling and evocative novel with an unsettling question at its heart, T. Greenwood s The Golden Hour explores the power of art to connect, to heal, and to reveal our most painful and necessary truths.
ACCLAIM FOR T. GREENWOOD S NOVELS
WHERE I LOST HER
Spellbinding. A touching story of one woman s loss and heartache, coupled with the electrifying search for a young girl.I loved everything about Where ILost Her." --Mary Kubica, bestselling author of The Good Girl
Searing, heartbreaking, and suspenseful. --Publishers Weekly
THE FOREVER BRIDGE
A compelling read. --Tawni O Dell, New York Times bestselling author of Back Roads
T. Greenwood delves into the pain of grief, and brings the reader to a place of hope and, yes, even joy. --Ann Hood, author of The Knitting Circle and An Italian Wife
BODIES OF WATER
A complex and compelling portrait of the painful intricacies of love and loyalty. Book clubs will find much to discuss in T. Greenwood s insightful story of two women caught between their hearts and their families. --Eleanor Brown, New York Times bestselling author of The Weird Sisters
By turns beautiful and tragic, haunting and healing, I was captivated from the very first line. --Jillian Cantor, author of Margot
GRACE
A poetic, compelling story that glows in its subtle, yet searing examination of how we attempt to fill the potentially devastating fissures in our lives. --Amy Hatvany, author of Heart Like Mine
Exceptionally well-observed. Readers who enjoy insightful and sensitive family drama will appreciate discovering Greenwood. --Library Journal"