The Damage

April 15, 2021
In a small town in southern Maine, the picture-perfect life enjoyed by an attorney, her husband, and their two children is invaded by violence and deceit when her brother-in-law, a college student, is brutally raped by a man who seems likely to escape justice. Julia Hall last saw Detective John Rice in 2016 when Rice was investigating the rape of Julia's 20-year-old brother-in-law, Nick. She'd hoped never to see the officer again. But three years later, she receives a call from Rice, now dying of cancer, who gently insists--to her mounting terror--that they revisit the past. "Back to the beginning?" Rice suggests. The tightly coiled narrative then returns to the night Nick Hall meets a charming stranger in a bar, goes back to his motel room, and is brutally assaulted. (The violence here, while disturbing, is never gratuitous.) Nick reports the crime, identifies his attacker, and attempts to heal with the help of his older half brother and lifetime protector, Tony, who is Julia's upright and loving husband. A case that should be clear turns shadowy, however, when the perpetrator succeeds in damaging not only Nick's credibility, but also his fragile identity. Because men "were supposed to win fights, be strong," as Tony puts it, sympathizing with his brother's anguish. In one of the novel's most satisfying twists, however, it is Julia who faces the most extreme test of all. "The naive little house cat who believed in rules and order was being toppled by the puma who knew that some days, the only law is kill or be killed," she realizes of herself as the novel reaches its sly denouement. Throughout, the author deftly employs alternating points of view to expose the psychological and emotional consequences of violence while sustaining a chilling atmosphere of suspense. A deeply humane and affecting psychological thriller by a debut author.

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May 1, 2021
After Nick Hall is sexually assaulted, his rapist's savvy manipulation of public perception in their Maine college town alters his family's concept of justice. Nick struggles with self-blame and complicated family relationships, while Tony, Nick's protective older brother, is consumed with anger over his powerlessness. Tony's wife, Julia, a former defense attorney, struggles with her familiarity with the emotional damage the legal process will create. Furthering their devastation, Nick's identity is revealed shortly after the rapist, Raymond Walker, releases a compelling reframing of the situation in which he's the victim of Nick's lies. Detective John Rice works the case diligently, right up until the moment that Walker disappears. Now, three years later, Rice is at the final stages of his fight with cancer and requests a meeting that Julia always hoped would never occur. Compelling, relatable conflict and well-crafted twists create depth in this thoughtful blend of family drama and mystery, which shares appeal with M. T. Edvardsson's A Nearly Normal Family (2019) and Wendy Walker's All Is Not Forgotten (2016).

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