Everything We Didn't Say
A Novel
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- ¥1,700
発行者による作品情報
From the author of Little Broken Things, a “race-to-the-finish family drama” (People) following a mother who must confront the dark summer that changed her life forever in order to reclaim the daughter she left behind.
Juniper Baker had just graduated from high school and was deep in the throes of a summer romance when Cal and Beth Murphy, a childless couple who lived on a neighboring farm, were brutally murdered. When her younger brother became the prime suspect, June’s world collapsed and everything she loved that summer fell away. She left, promising never to return to tiny Jericho, Iowa.
Until now. Officially, she’s back in town to help an ill friend manage the local library. But really, she’s returned to repair her relationship with her teenage daughter, who’s been raised by Juniper’s mother and stepfather since birth—and to solve the infamous Murphy murders once and for all. She knows the key to both lies in the darkest secret of that long-ago summer night, one that’s haunted her for nearly fifteen years.
As history begins to repeat itself and a dogged local true crime podcaster starts delving into the murders, the race to the truth puts past and present on a dangerous collision course. Juniper lands back in an all-too-familiar place with the answers to everything finally in her sights, but this time it’s her daughter’s life that hangs in the balance. Will revealing what really happened mean a fresh start? Or will the truth destroy everything Juniper loves for a second time? Baart once again brilliantly weaves mystery into family drama in this expertly-crafted novel for fans of Lisa Jewell and Megan Miranda.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Colorado librarian Juniper Baker, the protagonist of this lyrical suspense novel from Baart (You Were Always Mine), has complex reasons for returning to rural Jericho, Iowa, which she left 13 years earlier at 19, entrusting her infant daughter, Willa, to be raised by her parents, ostensibly to help an old friend who is dealing with a cancer diagnosis but really so she could escape her demons. Juniper's brief visits to see Willa over the years have made clear to her how much shared history she has squandered—and that if she hopes to forge anything resembling a real mother-daughter relationship with the 13-year-old, it's now or never. In addition, there are online rumors that a true crime podcaster plans to reinvestigate the double murder in which her younger brother, Jonathan, became the prime suspect; Juniper hopes by doing some digging herself she can finally figure out what happened. But before Juniper can properly discuss the still unsolved case with him, alarming things begin to happen: her car tires are slashed, and someone poisons Jonathan's dog. Despite the escalating peril, Juniper forces herself to revisit fraught memories, including those of her heady secret romance with Willa's father, in search of clues. Baart delivers enough twists not to disappoint as she movingly evokes love and innocence lost. This delayed coming-of-age story will have broad appeal.
