Prom Mom
A Novel
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4.3 • 8 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
"Well-plotted, well-written, clear-eyed. I never saw the end coming. There's a hell of a one-two punch waiting for you." —Stephen King
New York Times bestseller Laura Lippman tells the story of Amber Glass, desperately trying to get away from her tabloid past but compulsively drawn back to the city of her youth and the prom date who destroyed everything she was reaching for.
Amber Glass has spent her entire adult life putting as much distance as possible between her and her hometown of Baltimore, where she fears she will forever be known as “Prom Mom”—the girl who allegedly killed her baby on the night of the prom after her date, Joe Simpson, abandoned her to pursue the girl he really liked. But when circumstances bring Amber back to the city, she realizes she can have a second chance—as long as she stays away from Joe, now a successful commercial real estate developer, married to a plastic surgeon, Meredith, to whom he is devoted.
The problem is, Amber can’t stay away from Joe. And Joe finds that it’s increasingly hard for him to ignore Amber, if only because she remembers the boy he was and the man he said he was going to be. Against the surreal backdrop of 2020 and early 2021, the two are slowly drawn to each other and eventually cross the line they’ve been trying not to cross.
And then Joe asks Amber to help him do the unthinkable . . . and she must decide if she is willing to let their toxic and dangerous past repeat itself.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This gripping thriller from Lippman (Dream Girl) centers on the codependent relationships between the charming Joe Simpson and the women trapped in his orbit. Prom night 1997 at Baltimore's Towson High School ends in the shocking death of a newborn baby, found in the girls' restroom near the mother (and Joe's date), a barely conscious Amber Glass. Though she has no recollection of what happened, Amber is arrested and swiftly convicted of manslaughter. While Amber is in prison, Joe meets and marries Meredith, whom he cheats on regularly. After starting her life over in New Orleans post-prison, Amber decides to return to Baltimore for the first time in more than 20 years to open an art gallery—when she does, she and Joe fall back into a relationship. By then, the Covid-19 pandemic is in full swing, dooming Joe's hopes for the local shopping center he recently purchased. With Amber's help, he concocts a scheme to bail himself out before he meets financial ruin, which goes predictably awry. Lippman works up a slow burn, gently teasing out a game of cat and mouse between Joe and Amber that comes into full focus toward the end of the novel. Readers who persevere will reach a devilishly satisfying conclusion.
