by Molly Best Tinsley
In this ingeniously braided narrative, Margaret Torrens, who has traded academia for early retirement and the solitude of a cabin in the western mountains, suddenly finds herself undergoing assessment in a ward for the criminally insane with a charge of murder in the air. Pried out of her by an impatient young psychologist, Margaret’s story features Jane Farrow—a former student, who showed up at the cabin uninvited with an odd, mute child in tow—and Victor, Margaret’s alleged victim, who barged in to put his claim on both. As Margaret attempts to control her narrative of the recent past, she is waylaid by repressed secrets, triggered by the ghost of her young husband, lost decades before.

“What a book! Smart, meaty, engrossing, terrifying …” —Bill Varble