Publisher's Weekly Review
One day, 20 years after violin teacher Anthony Carmichael sexually assaulted Bridget Webster, the heroine of this stunning psychological thriller from Kent (The Day She Disappeared), Carmichael walks into the boutique that Bridget owns in Rose Hill, England. They recognize each other. With Carmichael, who's now teaching at the local university, where Bridget's husband, Matt, runs the computer office, is a girl of 14 or 15, the pedophile's latest "protAcgAc." Confronted by the man who nearly destroyed her life, Bridget isn't sure what to do. Leave town? Go to the police? Or just do nothing. Meanwhile, London journalist Gillian Lawson, who has had her eye on Carmichael for years and suspects that Bridget was one of his first victims, travels to Rose Hill to interview her and seek out Carmichael. Bridget's increasingly paranoid behavior worries Matt, who's acquainted with Carmichael but unaware of his link to Bridget. The stakes rise when Carmichael goes missing. Incisive character studies, seamless plotting, and a breathtaking final reveal make this a standout. Agent: Victoria Hobbs, A.M. Heath (U.K.). (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Kent (The Day She Disappeared, 2018, etc.) explores the long-term effects of abuse and the way one victim finds empowerment.Bridget leads a happy, normal life: She kisses her husband goodbye every morning and feels both nervous and excited to meet her teenage son's first girlfriend. She runs a boutique in town and has made connections with other small business owners on the main street. Yet Bridget also remembers being a young girl, hospitalized because she refused to eat. She remembers, too, her violin teacher, Anthony Carmichael, who showered her with attention and with praise, before he began to lavish her with other, more unwelcome attentions. She has never told her family about this dark chapter of her past, so when Carmichael shows up in her shop one day, helping another young protg to choose a dress to wear in a performance, Bridget's careful control on life begins to splinter. And when he returns alone to confront her days later, she does something both shocking and inevitable. In the aftermath, she must work, with the help of her troubled sister, to keep her past and present deeds concealed, little knowing that her family is more deeply ensnared in Carmichael's web than she could imagine. This is not a mystery, though there is a big twist at the end, nor is it a thriller, though there is much psychological tension. Rather, this is a novel of the #MeToo era; a story about all the jagged fragments that so many women have kept hidden in shame, about the moments they remember from their pasts that make them wonder, "Did I deserve this? Did I ask for it?" This book, through Bridget's story, unequivocally answers, "No. You are not damaged, you are not unlovable."A slow-paced novel that builds empathy; thought-provoking rather than entertaining. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
When Anthony Carmichael enters Bridget Webster's Rose Hill dress shop, she finds herself suddenly drowning in flashbacks of being sexually abused by the renowned violin instructor. He's arrived with a young woman whose eagerness to please twists Bridget's stomach, and she watches in a panicked daze as Carmichael, exuding charm, purchases a dress for the woman. Later, Carmichael returns, intending to demonstrate that he's still in control: no one would believe her, and, besides, he and his friends have those pictures he took of her. Shocking them both, Bridget acts on a wave of desperation and rage, killing Carmichael. When Bridget's risk-taking sister, Carrie, finds her wrestling with Carmichael's body, she refuses to leave straitlaced Bridget to conceal the murder alone. But when an investigative reporter shows up asking questions about Carmichael, and Bridget realizes that his predatory ring is still active in Rose Hill, she and Carrie are forced to juggle hiding the murder with exposing the predators. Readers will root for the unwitting killer in this tense, well-crafted vigilante thriller.--Christine Tran Copyright 2018 Booklist
