On a searing August day, Melisandre Harris Dawes left her infant daughter locked in a car while she sat nearby on the shores of the Patapsco River. Melisandre was found not guilty by reason of criminal insanity, although there was much skepticism about her mental state. Freed, she left the country, her husband and her two surviving children, determined to start over.
Now Melisandre has returned to Baltimore to meet with her estranged teenage daughters and wants to film the reunion for a documentary. But she relinquished custody and her ex isn't sure he approves.
Now that's she's a mother herself, Tess Monaghan wants nothing to do with a woman crazy enough to have killed her own child. But a friend has asked Tess and her new partner, Sandy Sanchez, to assess Melisandre's security needs.
A decade ago, a judge ruled that Melisandre was beyond rational thought. But was she? As her doubts about Melisandre grow, Tess realizes that she's under scrutiny as well, followed by a judgmental stalker with an ax to grind . . .
Since Laura Lippman’s debut, she has been recognized as a distinctive voice in mystery fiction and named one of the “essential” crime writers of the last 100 years. Stephen King called her “special, even extraordinary,” and Gillian Flynn wrote, “She is simply a brilliant novelist.” Her books have won most of the major awards in her field and been translated into more than twenty-five languages. She lives in Baltimore and New Orleans with her teenager.
Hometown:
Baltimore, Maryland
Date of Birth:
January 31, 1959
Place of Birth:
Atlanta, Georgia
Education:
B.S., Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University, 1981
