Pinky Swear
A Novel
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- 129,00 kr
Publisher Description
From Danielle Girard, the USA TODAY bestselling author who “effortlessly ratchets up the tension” (J.T. Ellison, New York Times bestselling author), comes a pulse-pounding thriller about a young woman whose surrogate disappears just days before the baby’s due date, leading to a frantic search that uncovers dark truths and the power of a mother’s love.
Lexi thought she knew everything about Mara Vannatta. Best friends since middle school, they drifted apart after a tragedy derailed their senior year. But when Mara shows up on Lexi’s doorstep sixteen years later fleeing an abusive husband, Lexi takes her in without question. Lexi’s own marriage has been strained by her desire to have a baby, and when Mara offers to become her surrogate, their friendship feels stronger than ever.
But four days before the due date, Mara disappears.
Lexi is shocked but certain there must be something wrong—Mara would never willingly leave with her unborn child. Or would she? As she embarks on a perilous cross-country hunt for the truth, Lexi is forced to reconsider a friendship she thought she knew—and what really happened that terrible night their senior year. How many secrets lie in their shared past, waiting to be uncovered? And just how far will Lexi go to bring her child safely home?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the start of this formulaic standalone from Girard (Up Close), Lexi McNeil is days away from becoming a mother when Mara Vannatta, her surrogate and high school best friend, suddenly disappears. Alarmed that Mara might have been tracked to Denver by the abusive husband she fled from back in Philadelphia, Lexi pleads for help from local police, who are sympathetic but don't have any promising leads. Desperate to protect the baby girl she's dreamed of for years, Lexi flies to Philly, only to learn shortly after landing that there's a warrant out for Mara's arrest. As an increasingly alarmed Lexi scrambles to piece together the truth, Girard flashes back to her and Mara's senior year of high school and the traumatic death of their close friend, Cate—an event Lexi starts to reconsider in light of her discoveries about Mara. The more serpentine the plot gets, the less plausible it becomes, as Lexi explores the seedy Philadelphia strip joints where Mara danced and meets the drug dealers she ran with and the crooked cops they paid to look the other way. Though Girard tackles such worthy themes as female friendship and sexual assault, her characters aren't convincing enough to patch over the plot's shakiness. It's a letdown.
