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Summary
Summary
Alice Kessler spent nine years in prison for the attempted murder of the drunk driver who killed her son. Now she's returned home to Gray's Island to reconnect with the son she left behind. Her boy, Jeremy, now a sullen teenager, is wrongly accused of rape, and mother and son are thrown together in a desperate attempt to prove his innocence. She's aided by Colin McGinty, a recovering alcoholic and 9/11 widower, also recently returned to the island in the aftermath of his grandfather's death. Colin's grandfather, a famous artist, is best known for his haunting portrait, "Woman in Red," which happens to be of Alice's grandmother. In a tale that weaves the past with the present, we come to know the story behind the portrait, of the forbidden wartime romance between William McGinty and Eleanor Styles, and the deadly secret that bound them more tightly than even their love for each other. A secret that, more than half a century later, is about to be unburied, as Alice and Colin are drawn into a fragile romance of their own and the ghost of an enemy from long ago surfaces in the form of his grandson, the very man responsible for sending Alice to prison.
Author Notes
Eileen Goudge was born July 4, 1950 and grew up in the San Francisco bay area. She began writing at the age of eight. At eighteen, she dropped out of college, ran off with a man dodging the draft, and got married. Two years later, she was divorced, with a baby, and had to go on welfare. She decided to become a professional writer, started writing non-stop and managed to sell a few articles. In the early eighties, she was chosen to help launch a new line of teen romances, which became the successful Sweet Valley High series. She now had enough money to end another bad marriage and move to New York City with her two children. She continued to write the Sweet Valley High titles while working on a novel. Her first novel, Garden of Lies, was sold in 1986 to Viking for nearly one million dollars. Since then, she has written over thirty novels for young adults and over ten works of women's fiction. Her other works include Thorns of Truth, The Diary, and Once in a Blue Moon. Her title The Diary is a New York Times bestseller.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this page-turning novel, Alice Kessler, the married mother of two sons, is living on the fictional Grays Island, in the Pacific Northwest, when her eight-year-old son is run over while riding his bike. Alice is convinced the driver, Owen White, was drunk-though her husband, Randy, is not. Neither is the court system. So, on the day Alice loses her wrongful death lawsuit, she runs Owen down in the courthouse parking lot, crippling but not killing him. Alice serves nine years and returns to the island near-broke and hoping to reunite with her surviving son, Jeremy, now 16. (Her husband, Randy, has divorced her.) At the same time, Colin McGinty, an ex-Manhattan prosecutor, has returned to his dead artist grandfather's island house after losing his wife in 9/11. Alice and Colin's fates become bound with a little help from Colin's inherited border collie and, more concretely, a portrait of Alice's grandmother. Cutting between WWII-era depictions of the lives of Colin's and Alice's grandparents and the melodramatic present (including Alice's son being accused of rape and Owen White's machinations as island mayor), haute-romance veteran Goudge (Immediate Family; Wish Come True; etc.) unspools a predictable yet satisfying tale of survival and redemption. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Returning home to the snug offshore community of Gray's Island, Washington, after nine years in prison for the attempted murder of the drunk driver who killed her son, Alice Kessler finds that much has changed. For one thing, her intended victim, Owen Wilson, now confined to a wheelchair, has been elected mayor and uses his infirmity to great political advantage: blackmailing police and court officials, green-lighting controversial property developments, and mercilessly intimidating anyone who dares oppose him. Wanting only to lead a quiet life so she can rebuild a relationship with her surviving son, Jeremy, Alice quickly discovers the depths of Wilson's need for revenge when Jeremy is falsely accused of rape. Desperate to clear Jeremy's name, Alice must rely on one of the few people brave enough to stand up to Wilson, recovering alcoholic and former Manhattan district attorney Colin McGinty. He has come to Gray's Island still mourning his wife, who was killed on 9/11, and finds strength in Alice's fierce determination to save her son and put her past behind her. Goudge's skillful storytelling slyly juxtaposes bucolic imagery and congenial, if not particularly complex, characters with an incisively sinister, often surprising tale of secrets kept and promises broken. --Carol Haggas Copyright 2007 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Nine years after she was imprisoned for the attempted murder of Owen White, the drunk driver who had killed her son David, Alice Keesler is released and returns to Grays Island. Her husband has divorced her, second son Jeremy is a stranger, and Owen, in a wheelchair, is now mayor. Alice feels threatened by Owen when she opens a restaurant and, even worse, when Jeremy is accused of rape. For legal help, she turns to attorney Colin McGinty, whom she had met on the ferry to the island. He, too, has had his difficulties, having turned to alcohol after his wife was killed in the 9/11 attacks. Alice's and Colin's troubles parallel the earlier story of their grandparents. In 1942, artist William McGinty fell in love with Alice's grandmother, whose husband was fighting in the Pacific. Their love was revealed only in McGinty's masterpiece, the painting Woman in Red. Goudge's (Immediate Family) latest novel beautifully intertwines the two stories, two generations apart. Her characters are appealing both despite of and because of their problems. Recommended for all women's fiction collections.-Lesa M. Holstine, Glendale P.L., AZ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
