Casey Ellis has spent her life longing for the father she never knew. Jenny Clyde has spent hers loathing the father she knew all too well. Casey's father is a noteworthy psychologist named Cornelius Unger; Jenny's is a notorious prisoner, Darden Clyde. When Unger dies, he bequeaths Casey more than just his luxurious Beacon Hill townhouse; she also inherits his cook, gardener, and random segments of Jenny's disturbing diary, a bewildering chronicle written prior to Jenny's mysterious disappearance in the company of a shadowy young man known only as Pete. Darden is about to be released from prison for the murder of Jenny's mother, and his imminent arrival permeates Jenny's abject account of her life spent in fear of his psychological and sexual abuse. Hoping to solve the puzzling connection between this tortured young woman and her enigmatic father, Casey follows the journal's tantalizing clues in search of not only Jenny's identity and whereabouts but also her own familial relationships. Fantasy battles reality in Delinsky's emotive novel of discovery and denial, love and liberation. Seamlessly and compassionately weaving Jenny's unsettling past with Casey's uncertain future, Delinsky delivers a scintillating study of each woman's search for answers and absolution. Carol Haggas

---

Personen: Delinsky, Barbara