“A moody, atmospheric thriller perfectly crafted.” —Charlie Donlea, USA Today bestselling author of Twenty Years Later
A dark new thriller perfect for fans of Megan Miranda and Shari Lapena where murder exposes the dark secrets at the center of a group of friends and sets two women – one with a traumatic past, the other a Boston police detective – on a hunt for truth.Snow falls softly outside Molly Bradley’s home on a frigid January night. Inside, half a dozen close friends are gathered to celebrate the fortieth birthday of Molly’s psychologist husband, Jay. Candlelight gleams against dark wood, wine flows, and the house rings with laughter. Everybody loves Jay, Molly most of all. Yet next morning, Molly discovers Jay dead on the floor of his office, his throat brutally slashed.
After decades working with the Boston PD, Detective Rita Myers has grown accustomed to the banality of evil—the murders that make no sense beyond bad luck or a tragic brush with the worst of humanity. But Jay Bradley’s murder isn’t random, or a mere crime of opportunity. Rita is convinced that someone in the couple’s small circle killed him. Someone who was celebrating with them that night.
Devastated, Molly tries to make sense of her husband’s death. Jay was her rock, the only person who really understood the nightmare she lived through long ago. He knew the horrors she’s kept hidden even from her friends. But shocking revelations are making her question if Jay was all he seemed to be—and whether someone else knows her past too. And until Molly figures out who she can really trust, she won’t be able to stop herself becoming the next target . . .
“Gripping…Parlato is off to a strong start.” – Publishers Weekly “A creepy debut.” – Kirkus Reviews
Her friends probably could be forgiven for thinking that Molly Bradley is the heroine of a cozy mystery. She lives in lovely Graybridge, Massachusetts; she works in a bookstore; she's married to a psychologist everyone loves. Molly's dreams of happiness end the morning after Dr. Jay Bradley's 40th birthday party, when she awakens to find him dead on the floor of his home office, his throat cut. Det. Rita Myers, whose first-person narrative alternates with Molly's, naturally wants to talk to the friends who gathered for the party. But nothing said by any of them--Molly's BFF, Kim Pearson, and her husband, Josh; Jay's partner, Dr. Elise Westmore, and her husband, Scott; and Jay's hockey buddy, Cal Ferris, and his wife, Laken--can hold a candle to Molly's own history, which was known only to Jay. Abducted as a child along with a friend and neighbor, she was imprisoned in a basement and repeatedly molested, and she's suffered ever since from the dreadful knowledge that the other victim didn't survive. Now the news that Jay was contacting imprisoned felons for a possible book and the discovery in his filing cabinet of a necklace belonging to the missing Annalise Robb threatens to bring Molly's past crashing back into her carefully constructed present. And the phone calls she gets from someone claiming to know all about that basement and determined to return her to captivity force her sorrow at not having children, and even her grief about her husband, into supporting roles as she struggles to take charge of her own life.
