Before the Storm
A Topsail Island Novel, Book 1
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4.3 • 15 Ratings
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- £3.49
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- £3.49
Publisher Description
What if your child was accused of mass murder?
When the local church is razed to the ground, dozens of trapped children manage to escape – many helped by fifteen-year-old Andy Lockwood. Born with Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, Andy is more like a little boy that a teenager, but in the eyes of the people he saved, he’s a hero.
Laurel lost her son once through neglect and has spent the rest of her life determined to make up for her mistakes. Yet when suspicion of arson is cast upon Andy, Laurel must ask herself how well she really knows her son – and how far she’ll go to protect him.
Praise for Diane Chamberlain
‘Fans of Jodi Picoult will delight in this finely tuned family drama, with beautifully drawn characters and a string of twists that will keep you guessing right up to the end.' - Stylist
‘A marvellously gifted author. Every book she writes is a gem’ - Literary Times
’Essential reading for Jodi Picoult fans’ Daily Mail
’So full of unexpected twists you'll find yourself wanting to finish it in one sitting. Fans of Jodi Picoult's style will love how Diane Chamberlain writes.’ - Candis
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Chamberlain (The Bay at Midnight) lays out her latest piece of romantic suspense in a shattered chronology that's as graceful as it is perfectly paced. Most of the adults in the tightly knit coastal community of Topsail Island, N.C., accept the widowed Laurel Lockwood's 15-year-old mentally disabled son, Andy. But when Andy saves many of the town's youth during a tragic fire, he becomes a local hero who garners national attention. Laurel, caught up with making sure Andy is okay, thinks daughter Maggie, a high school senior, can handle herself. What Maggie hides from everyone are her slipping grades, a taboo affair and a terrible secret, and when the fire's origins are investigated and Andy is a person of interest, events turn progressively darker for the family. Long, juicy flashbacks cover the mysteries of Laurel's husband's death, of Andy's condition and of Laurel's preoccupation with him. Chamberlain offers no easy solutions, but her engrossing prose leads the way to redemption.
