The Bullet
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4.1 • 67 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
From former NPR correspondent and acclaimed author of Anonymous Sources Mary Louise Kelly comes an “action-packed page-turner” (Publishers Weekly) about fear, family secrets, and one woman’s hunt for answers about the murder of her parents.
Caroline Cashion is beautiful, intelligent, a professor of French literature. But in a split second, everything she’s known is proved to be a lie.
A single bullet is found lodged at the base of her skull. It makes no sense: Caroline has never been shot. Then, she learns the truth: that she was adopted when she was three years old, after her real parents were murdered. Caroline was wounded the night they were attacked, a gunshot to the neck. Surgeons had stitched her up with the bullet still there, nestled deep among vital nerves and blood vessels.
Now, Caroline has to find the truth of her past. Why were her parents killed? Why is she still alive? She returns to her hometown, where she learns that the bullet in her neck is the same bullet that killed her mother. It hit Caroline’s mother and kept going, hurtling through the mother’s chest and into the child hiding behind her.
She is horrified—and in danger. The bullet in her neck could finger a murderer. A frantic race is set in motion: Can Caroline unravel the clues to her past before the killer tracks her down?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bacon can't cure everything. That's one of the lesser discoveries Caroline Cashion, a 37-year-old Georgetown University French literature professor, makes in this heady thriller from former NPR correspondent Kelly, her second novel after 2014's Anonymous Sources. A life-changing revelation on her MRI there's a bullet she has no clue about lodged in her neck launches the likable and normally unflappable academic, whom Jane Austen would have found a kindred spirit despite her Salma Hayek looks, into a distinctly uncharacteristic flurry of activity. She's whisked back three decades to her childhood in Atlanta and a shocking, never-solved double homicide. En route, she finds romance with a sexy, country music loving doctor, Will Zartman, who is so definitely not her type. Kelly pulls off the difficult feat of plotting an action-packed page-turner that remains within the bounds of believability.
Customer Reviews
Good Read!
Bought this book on sale with 3 others to have on hand when would be traveling. Not really expecting much but I was drawn into the story. Looked forward to coming back to it each day and was sad that the story ended. Not an HEA. But a (shrug) “Life goes on” ending.
A Thrilling Story!
I loved the first 85% of this novel so much that the end of it wasn't enough to lower my rating, although I thought it really started to fall apart at that point. I was disappointed in that last 15 percent, and was not at all satisfied with the conclusion. However, the rest of the book, I found completely thrilling. The main character, Caroline Cashion, was great during this major portion of the story, and I really felt for all she was going through. I cannot begin to imagine how it would be to discover such things about yourself at that age. I really enjoyed her relationship with her family, and I was touched by how close she was to her parents and brothers. The storyline was so compelling, and it kept me on the edge of my seat.
At age 37, Professor Caroline Cashion is suffering from wrist pain believed by her doctor to be caused by carpal tunnel syndrome. When she can get no relief from the pain, an MRI is ordered and shockingly shows what appears to be a bullet lodged next to her skull. An X-ray confirms that there is actually a bullet there, and Caroline is sent reeling, as she had no idea she'd ever been shot. When she confronts her parents, a story that is almost unbelievable to her comes out. Caroline was adopted as a three year old after the murder of her parents, at which time she was also shot and left for dead. As Caroline tries to wrap her mind around the truth of her past, she also has to make decisions about the bullet that seems to have shifted in its dangerous location. Caroline travels from her home in Washington, D.C. to where she spent her early childhood in Atlanta, in order to find as much information as possible about her past and her parents. The shocking things she discovers will have enormous impact on Caroline and her future.
This book was so good for most of the story. Caroline and her family were wonderful characters, and I even felt a connection to and some sympathy for Will Zartman, Carline's doctor. I was so sorry to see the book start to go off the rails near the end, and then never find the way back on track. I struggled with my rating since I was so disappointed by the last part, but until then, I was certain that it was going to go to the top spot of my favorite books of the year so far. This is a book that I will not forget, so I made the decision to go with 5 stars, even though the book has issues. (view spoiler) (less)