She’s home. Her parents are gone and Brooke has returned to live in her childhood home after 10 years away. She has a son who will attend the local middle school. No one knows who his father is, not even him.

But everyone knows Brooke saw her friends die one by one on a stormy night ten years before. Everyone knows that she helped put the murderer Shane Nelson in a maximum security prison not that far away.

It’s the last thing she planned, but the only job going as a nurse practitioner, is at the same prison the murderer is locked up in for life. What she does plan, is to avoid him as long as possible and never, ever tell him he has a son.

After all, that’s part of her job description and rules – never tell the inmates anything personal. But before she can blink, her high school boyfriend is in her clinic needing stitches in his head.

It seems that Shane isn’t popular in prison either, and he is beaten up frequently. One particular guard shackles and cuffs him constantly, and there never is any pain relief available for this particular inmate.

But Brooke can remember what Shane was like at high school. He was a star quarter back who loved to see her on the sidelines. He treated her well, and she loved him. At least until that night 11 years before.

Her best friend Tim warned her against Shane, but she ignored him. Tim was cute and even more so when he lost his freckles and grew. But Shane was hot, and all the girls wanted to go out with him. Brooke had to learn the hard way that Tim was right all along. Or did he have an ulterior motive too?

A twisty thriller that is split into two timelines. The present – with main character Brooke at 27, and her son is 10, and 11 years ago when she was in love with the star quarter back in high school.

She is settling back into her home town, worrying about her son fitting in, and her new job. But events tip her plans upside down, and her memories of that night when her friends died suddenly don’t seem that clear-cut. She’d testified against her boyfriend, but the more she sees of him as her patient in prison, the more she begins to doubt herself.

Another man returns to her life – her best friend Tim. Things are going well between them, until the truth hits her like a logging truck. But is it the truth, or does someone else know more about that stormy, gruesome night of multiple murders?

Brooke doesn’t know who to trust or where to turn as everyone in her life seems a threat. But now she has her son to protect.

A gripping read full of secrets, twists, past loves and close friendships. But the body count is high and the ever-increasing tension is page-turning stuff.

Is deemed a YA, but can be read by anyone 16+ as over half the book has the character as a woman in her 20’s. 

Author – Freida McFadden

Age – 16+

(2024, Source Books, Prisoners, Inmates, Nurse Practitioner, Bullies, Guards, Fights, Returning home, Home town, High School Boyfriend, Party, Serial Killer, Betrayal, Revenge, Mystery, Love, Crime, Murder, Secret, Family, Tension, Constantly guessing, Plot Twists)