Freelance writer Cassie Bowman's specialty is true crime and she is used to murder cases involving husbands who kill their wives, or even wives who killed their husbands. Having done this kind of investigative writing for a few years, it takes a bit to surprise her. When she comes across a news article about a woman who was not only a bigamist but a widow after one of the husbands killed the other in 1985. Cassie knows if she can get Delores "Lore" Rivera to agree to talk with her for an article, it could make her career.
The last thing Lore wants to do is stir everything back up again. She's still got a relationship with her now-adult sons and doesn't want to mess that up. Talking about a murder that destroyed two good men, both of whom Lore loved, does not appeal. So she initially shuts Cassie down. But Cassie persists and Lore eventually agrees to talk to her. Though Cassie is thrilled, she begins to suspect that Lore has her own agenda, one that may change everything Cassie thinks she knows about the case (and perhaps about her own life and past).
The blurb for this debut describes it as literary suspense, and I'll say, okay. I can go with that as a descriptor for a novel of familial relationships, the choices people can make even when they know how incredibly wrong they are, and the lasting and devastating impact those choices can have on their family and friends. It's also a story of healing and coming to terms with their own histories - both for Lore and Cassie - and is at times heartbreaking and at times heart-pounding.