From the award winning author of There Was an Old Woman comes a mystery tinged with Hollywood glamour, set in a town where fame and infamy are often interchangeable.
Los Angeles 1986: When Deirdre Unger makes the drive from San Diego to Beverly Hills to help her father put his dilapidated house on the market, she is expecting to deal with his usual kvetching and dark moods. But she gets a lot more than she expected... In a cruel Sunset Boulevard-ian twist, Deirdre arrives home to find her father face down in his too-small swimming pool—dead.
At first, Deirdre assumes her father’s death was a tragic accident. But the longer she stays in town the more Deirdre begins to suspect that this is merely the third act in a story that has long been in the making.
The sudden re-surfacing of Deirdre’s childhood BFF Joelen Nichol—daughter of the famous and infamous Elenor “Bunny” Nichol—seems like more than a coincidence. Back in 1958, Joelen confessed to killing her movie star mother’s boyfriend. It just so happens that Deidre was at the Nichols’ house the night of the murder, which was also the night she suffered her own personal tragedy. Could all of these events be connected?
As Deirdre struggles to uncover the truth about the past, is forced to confront a truth she has long not wanted to believe: even beneat the slick veneer of Beverly Hills, darkness can take hold.
From the New York Times bestselling author of There Was an Old Woman comes a novel about a professional organizer with a deadly problem she may not be able to clean up.
Emily Harlow is a professional organizer who helps people declutter their lives; she's married to man who can't drive past a yard sale without stopping. He's filled their basement, attic, and garage with his finds.
Like other professionals who make a living decluttering peoples' lives, Emily has devised a set of ironclad rules. When working with couples, she makes clear that the client is only allowed to declutter his or her own stuff. That stipulation has kept Emily's own marriage together these past few years. She'd love nothing better than to toss out all her husband's crap. He says he's a collector. Emily knows better-he's a hoarder. The larger his "collection" becomes, the deeper the distance grows between Emily and the man she married.
Luckily, Emily's got two new clients to distract herself: an elderly widow whose husband left behind a storage unit she didn't know existed, and a young wife whose husband won't allow her stuff into their house. Emily's initial meeting with the young wife takes a detour when, after too much wine, the women end up fantasizing about how much more pleasant life would be without their collecting spouses.
But the next day Emily finds herself in a mess that might be too big for her to clean up. Careful what you wish for, the old adage says . . . now Emily might lose her freedom, her marriage . . . and possibly her life.
An addictive novel of psychological suspense from the award-winning author of Night Night, Sleep Tight, about three generations of women haunted by a little girl’s disappearance, and the porcelain doll that may hold the key to the truth . . .
Seven-year-old Lissie Woodham and her four-year-old sister Janey were playing with their porcelain dolls in the front yard when an adorable puppy scampered by. Eager to pet the pretty dog, Lissie chased after the pup as it ran down the street. When she returned to the yard, Janey’s precious doll was gone . . . and so was Janey.
Forty years after Janey went missing, Lis—now a mother with a college-age daughter of her own—still blames herself for what happened. Every year on the anniversary of her sister’s disappearance, their mother, Miss Sorrel, places a classified ad in the local paper with a picture of the toy Janey had with her that day—a one-of-a-kind porcelain doll—offering a generous cash reward for its return. For years, there’s been no response. But this year, the doll came home.
It is the first clue in a decades-old mystery that is about to turn into something far more sinister—endangering Lis and the lives of her mother and daughter as well. Someone knows the truth about what happened all those years ago, and is desperate to keep it hidden.
There Was An Old Woman by Hallie Ephron is a compelling novel of psychological suspense in which a young woman becomes entangled in a terrifying web of deception and madness involving an elderly neighbor.
When Evie Ferrante learns that her mother has been hospitalized, she finds her mother's house in chaos. Sorting through her mother's belongings, Evie discovers objects that don't quite belong there, and begins to raise questions.
Evie renews a friendship with Mina, an elderly neighbor who might know more about her mother's recent activities, but Mina is having her own set of problems: Her nephew Brian is trying to persuade her to move to a senior care community. As Evie investigates her mother's actions, a darker story of deception and madness involving Mina emerges.
In There Was an Old Woman, award-winning mystery author Hallie Ephron delivers another work of domestic noir with truly unforgettable characters that will keep you riveted.
