Return to the Scene

“Time travel, serial killers, and female rage? Yes, please! Carlyn Greenwald's Return to the Scene is a complex, page-turning ride about how far someone will go to discover the truth, no matter the risk. With rich, taut prose, Greenwald keeps the reader in a chokehold until the final reveal." —Sophie Stava, bestselling author of Count My Lies

A pulse-pounding novel in which a modern-day true crime journalist and daughter of the infamous, executed “Bloody Waitress” serial killer wakes up two months before the 1994 killing spree begins. Return to the Scene is a multi-POV high-concept thrill ride, a twist-filled mystery, and, above all else, a mother-daughter book across complex generations of women.

True-crime reporter Daisy Ward has always lived in the dark shadow of her family’s past. Born on death row to Kendra Ward, “The Bloody Waitress” who supposedly killed three men at a truck stop diner in 1994, she’s found it hard to make her own name and life when you’re the daughter of a notorious serial killer.

Now twenty-five, the same age her mother was that fateful summer, Daisy clings to the only connection she has: the books and documentaries about her mother she devours, searching for the one detail everyone else missed. Because Daisy is certain of one thing—her mother didn’t do it.

When a new documentary uncovers fresh evidence, Daisy is determined to finally prove her innocence and heads to the small California town where it all happened to retrace Kendra’s steps. Instead, she finds herself transported back in time, to the very same summer of the killings. Eyebrows are thin, pants are baggy, The Lion King is playing on the big screen…and she's in 1994 with seemingly no time to clear her mother’s name. Daisy wastes no time in finding Kendra, who, fate has it, is looking for a roommate. With her mother now closer than ever, can Daisy save Kendra from her fate? Or will she sacrifice her own future in the process?