The Guilt We Carry

November 1, 2018
We've all seen those news stories about a freak accident and wondered how the family involved manages to go on? How do those poor people not just crumble under their own near-constant second-guessing about what they could have done differently? Well, Alice O'Farrell does crumble. After running away from home as a teenager, she now lives in a rent-by-the-hour hotel and tends bar at a strip club. One morning she wakes up in her boss' apartment next to his OD'd body. Searching for her own clothes, she finds a duffel bag with $91,000. This could be the fresh start she's been looking for. Unfortunately, a Cormac McCarthian pair of bad guys are after the bag and will do whatever it takes to find Alice and reclaim their property. Fans of country noir will be right at home as Gailey (Deep Winter, 2014) builds the grit-soaked suspense.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)