On the surface, the Barclays appear to be a picture-perfect family, but underneath, they’ve spun a tangled web of lies.
When their young nanny falls to her death—was it an accident or something darker?—things spiral out of control. Nine-year-old Rose, who witnessed the fall during her parents’ bitter divorce, has gone silent and developed a chilling habit of collecting sharp objects. Enter Stella Hudson, a lawyer tasked with uncovering who’s a victim and who’s a potential murderer. But good luck finding the truth when everyone’s hiding something.
Stella usually avoids clients under thirteen because of her own troubled past, but her mentor, a respected judge, insists she’s the only one who can handle this case.
The moment she steps through the ornate iron gate of the Barclays' lavish DC mansion, Stella realizes things are more twisted than she imagined. The house feels eerily plastic, devoid of glass.
As she digs deeper into the secrets the Barclays are desperate to keep hidden, Stella finds herself in a dangerous game where her past collides with the present. Everyone’s a suspect in the nanny’s death: the mom, the dad, the grandmother, the nanny’s boyfriend, and even little Rose. Can Stella protect the girl who might just be the one she needs to watch out for?
I love books that make you suspect everyone, and this certainly did the trick. Not only does Pekkanen make you distrust the entire Barclay family, you also start to distrust the people she’s working with in a professional capacity.
I had no clue who did what and who was going to betray Stella until the end of this book, which is always a good sign, in my opinion. I hate figuring out the mystery too early, as satisfying as it may be to get it right. I think the ending here was really touching and hopeful, too.
