Author: Patricia Hale
Publisher: Carina Press
About the book: Everybody thought brilliant Cecily would leave dead-end Miller's Falls for something better. But a two-decades-old tragedy locks her in place. Few understand the fierce bond that Cecily and Amelia share with Hilary, who was assaulted one summer as the two other girls watched helplessly. It's a bond of love and guilt… and a desire for vengeance that cuts clear to the bone.
So Assistant DA Cecily Minos waits, eager to see the guy in her courtroom. When Amelia meets a man who has the tattoo the girls remember seeing that day, they think they've finally caught a break. But the police refuse to reopen the case, and it's up to Cecily and Amelia to pursue their suspect.
Their investigation soon uncovers secrets best left buried. But the law is slow, and they've waited long enough for revenge….
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My thoughts: For a first book for Patricia Hale, this one was very good! I can't wait to see what she will write in the future. I liked the bond between Cecily, Hillary and Amelia, and given what they have gone through, it is very understandable and believable. Something like that either tears you apart or brings you together forever.
The story unfolds with us learning more and more about the girls' childhoods and the women they have become today. You learn how they each have developed coping mechanisms to get them past the memories that haunt them. Cecily seems to bear the most guilt and it is linked to a Ouiji board that they had played with as children. She has a link to the board which she is sure comes from her deceased Grandmother. She feels that the answers that she has been given through the board may have been guidance from her Grandmother all along.
The more involved Cecily becomes in the investigation concerning the assault from 18 years before, the more danger she finds herself in, and the more muddy the lines between being loyal to friends or being loyal to family become.
Again, loved this book - and I loved the touch of paranormal that was thrown in!
~I received a complimentary ecopy of this book from Partners in Crime Book Tours in exchange for my unbiased review.~
Excerpt from In the Shadow of Revenge:
My lungs were tight as fists and the voice inside my head said run, but my legs couldn’t be trusted. Standing up wouldn’t have gotten me out of there, it would only have drawn attention to the pee that was warm in my shorts and it might have gotten Hilary killed if he was serious about running that blade across her neck.
All of a sudden the man stood and keeping his back to us, lowered the kerchief and put a cigarette in his mouth. Hilary never moved though I saw her blink. She was looking at something far away like she was somewhere else entirely and I hoped that that was true so she wouldn’t have to know what happened. He pulled his baseball hat low over his face the same way it’d been when we first climbed into the railcar and without ever looking at us he jumped to the ground and walked away.
“Stay here,” I’d told Amelia, though I knew she wasn’t going anywhere. And I ran. I ran faster than I’d ever run not even caring about the pee burning the inside of my legs. I’d taken the woods instead of the path, running in the opposite direction from the way he’d gone. My legs were scraped and bleeding by the time I’d reached the road and the stitch in my side had made it almost impossible to breath, but I just kept thinking of Hilary laying there and I couldn’t stop until I was pulling open my own back door. I ran into the kitchen and through the house until I found my mother kneeling beside her bed, rosary beads draped around her prayerful hands like a spider web. I stood in the doorway and looked at her, imagined wrapping my arms around her neck and her drawing me in, holding me. I imagined feeling safe. She glanced at me standing there then dismissed me with a nod of her head, knee deep in Jesus. I turned and ran for the telephone.
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