Ugly secrets. Family trust. In today’s New South, breaking the silence can hurt.
LuAnn Hagerdorn Garrett accepts her powerful father’s offer to own and run a restaurant in her small southern hometown, ignoring her husband’s objections to the plan. Once they move, and the marriage begins to fall apart, LuAnn befriends a visiting journalist, encouraging him to seek out evidence about the town’s infamous unsolved civil rights murder. He does, but, she is shocked to learn, the evidence leads right to her father, now a candidate for Governor and her father is indicted for murder. Through the trial, LuAnn defends her father but when she is forced to confront one family secret after another, she has to reassess her faith in her father as well as her views about herself and her marriage.
Reviews
… a powerful first novel … .
— Thomas L. Kilpatrick, Library Journal
“An impressive debut – fast paced, atmospheric, and deeply moving.”
— Richard North Patterson
The care Wallace takes with LuAnn’s characterization enhances this well-paced legal thriller, as do flavorful Southern voices and a bracing dose of romance.
— Publishers Weekly
“A lively and realistic cast of characters,” plus “a fascinating and complex plot that relentlessly winds towards a satisfyingly unexpected conclusion.”
— Midwest Book Review
My favorite part about this story is that Rangeley Wallace wrote the most satisfying ending. Everything came full circle and left me smiling as the book came to a close.
— Novel Escapes
Pretty much the definition of a guilty pleasure read. Romance + courtroom drama = I should have gone to sleep hours ago.
— Goodread’s review
The atmosphere is absorbing, the story taut and the resolution a total surprise.
— Lynn Harnett, Amazon top 500 reviewer