Lynda C. (Readnmachine) reviewed on 5/24/2021 + 1440 more book reviews

This satisfying novel is more character study than whodunit, though it has elements of both.

Twenty-three years before the book begins, Jody Linder lost both parents in a night of shocking violence â her father shot to death in the family home, her mother disappeared without a trace. As the novel opens, Jody receives the horrifying news that the man convicted of her father's murder has had his prison sentence commuted due to irregularities in the trial, and is returning to their home town. No one knows if he plans revenge on those who put him behind bars, or whether he simply means to resume his former life of drinking, beating on his wife, and terrorizing anyone who crosses him.

Pickard does a good job with virtually all the characters â the Linder family members, the townspeople who are still agitated over the trial, Jody herself, and the man to whom she is drawn despite a personal history that makes their relationship impossible. Even the returning prisoner manages to be more than a straw man. (He's still totally unpleasant, but his whining, bullying, everybody-picks-on-me attitude is, unfortunately, all too recognizable). The setting â a small Kansas town surrounded by cattle and wheat ranches â is always present and is itself another character, indelibly marking those who live there.

The observant reader will probably have come to some conclusions at about the halfway point of the book, but it's unlikely they will get all the details right. The conclusion, where secrets are revealed and lives are shattered, is probably the weakest part of the novel, as some of the characters' actions seem unlikely, or contradictory to earlier characterizations.

It's still a worthwhile read, and the characters will stay with the reader for a while.

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