Emily Bristfield Livres

In a suburb near Albany, New York, Ted and Ann Waring are waiting for their divorce papers. They are also flirting with reconciliation - especially Ted - until, back from a hunting trip with their two adolescent daughters, he loses his temper one last time. Was Ann's death an accident, or was it murder? Thirteen-year-old Julia - already in trouble before her mother's death - testifies against her father, setting in motion a struggle that pits family, friends, and townspeople against one another and exposes the interlocking compulsions of husband and wife, parent and child, sister and sister. As the many layers of truth about the killing unfold in the courtroom and in the characters' lives, Emily Listfield's lean and potent prose reveals the ways in which the emotions and evasions of the past reverberate uncontrollably in the present. Here is a chilling drama of suspense and passion from an astute and elegant writer.