DEADLY GRACE
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- $3.99
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- $3.99
Publisher Description
On a cold winter night in a small Minnesota town in 1979, someone comes looking for Grace Meade. She is killed and her house is set ablaze. Incredibly, the prime suspect is her own daughter, Jillian.
Rescued from the burning house, Jillian Meade is hospitalized, unable—or unwilling—to speak. After an attempt to take her own life, Jillian's doctor gives her a blank journal to encourage her to write about her mother's death.
Unaware of what has happened, FBI Special Agent Alex Cruz comes to Havenwood, Minnesota, to interview Jillian. Two elderly women were found murdered in their homes in England, and Jillian, it seems, was the last person to see both women alive. When he learns that Jillian's own mother met a similar fate, he realizes that there is far more going on than anyone ever imagined.
When Jillian suddenly disappears, Cruz has only her journal to decipher the story of Grace and Jillian Meade. A story of a wartime heist of Nazi gold, of unforgivable betrayals and ruthless actions. A deadly secret from the past, Cruz learns, has surfaced. And if he doesn't find Jillian soon, she, too, may be made to pay the ultimate price.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Structural problems and unconvincing characterizations undermine Smith's overlong thriller (after The Innocent's Club; Random Acts; etc.), despite an intriguing premise. At the core of the novel are the disjointed notebooks and musings of young Jillian Meade; the mysterious past of Jillian's mother, Grace Meade; and the investigation by veteran homicide investigator (and rookie FBI agent) Alex Cruz. Washington-based Cruz, in his capacity as a liaison to foreign investigative services, has been asked to interview Jillian, who visited two British women shortly before they were murdered. When Cruz discovers that Jillian's mother has died in a suspicious fire in Havenwood, Minn., and that Jillian has been hospitalized there, he decides an on-site visit is indicated. British-born Grace had always been reluctant to talk about her romantic and heroic past as an undercover operative in Nazi-occupied France. It was there that she met and married an American pilot, Joe Meade, who didn't survive the war, and conceived Jillian. Now, in 1979, an adult Jillian trained as a historical researcher seeks to learn more about her mother's past. Her research reveals that Grace was not the community pillar of Havenwood she seemed, and it also sets loose murderous forces beyond Jillian's control. With Jillian hospitalized and uncooperative, and Grace dead, Cruz must try to discover if Jillian is killer or victim. His investigations, interspersed with pages from Jillian's notebook, provide a complex answer. The novel's suspenseful, somewhat surprising ending is not enough to overcome the unconvincing portrait of Grace Meade that the story depends on. National advertising.
