I try to stifle the harsh sounds I'm making but can't seem to manage it. Some swell of emotion is thrashing, trying to get loose in a safe way, but nothing seems safe now. Something has torn. Something has torn when I wasn't even looking--my family, my life. Something is dissolving around me and maybe it should dissolve because didn't I read once that a caterpillar goes to liquid in its cocoon? It just goes to liquid in that dark place so it can use the stuff of itself in some fresh new way. Jeez, I think, standing and wiping at my cheeks, what a really weird thought to have.This is the story of a woman caught in the net of a failing marriage, set in the background of a small town plagued by a series of brutal murders. She wants friendship, she wants love, but most of all she wants her life. Because as Dee Tamarack discovers, there's more than one way to lose your life. And more than one way to save it. ____________ Author's note: Amazon reviewer Becky Kraegel captured the sense of the book so well that I'm including it as helpful description. She gives it five stars and says, "What an excellent read! The murder mystery is interesting and not at all predictable, but it's not the main point of the book. The characters and their relationships are what pulled me in, especially the longtime female friendship that forms the book's emotional core. The main character's thoughts and feelings are realistic and relatable, and Dee makes fascinating connections between ideas she has learned about during her life just like real people do. Sometimes characters' lives seem to begin and end with the story being told in the book, but Dee is what we learned in school to call a "rounded" character. I feel like I know her after reading this book, and she's someone I would like to be friends with. If you normally avoid "crime-related" fiction, don't be scared away by the murders in this book. Dee's story is serious, but she's fun, and this novel is definitely literary fiction." _______________
