The one I left behind

Title:

Author:

Summary:

Reggie, a successful architect who left her hometown and the horrific memories of a long ago summer behind, gets a call revealing that her mother has been found alive--a call that forces Reggie to confront the ghosts of her past and find the serial killer known as Neptune before he kills again.

In the summer of 1985, teenaged Reggie's mother was the victim of a serial killer called Neptune, who left his victims' severed hands on the police department steps. Her body was never found; the killer was never caught. Twenty-five years later, Reggie is a successful architect who has left her hometown. But when she gets a call revealing that her mother has been found alive, Reggie must confront the ghosts of her past-- and find Neptune before he kills again.

Edition:

1st ed.

Physical Description:

422 p. ; 21 cm.

Genre:

Thrillers (Fiction)

Detective and mystery fiction.

Subject Term:

Women architects -- Fiction.

Serial murderers -- Fiction.

Women -- Crimes against -- Fiction.

Publisher:

William Morrow,

Publication Date:

2013

ISBN:

9780062122551

Publication Information:

New York : William Morrow, c2013.

Call Number:

MCMAHON

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607002744178	Adult Fiction	MCMAHON	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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Summary

"One of the brightest new stars of literary suspense."

--Los Angeles Times

New York Times bestselling author Jennifer McMahon is back with a gut-wrenching mystery about an architect whose troubled mother has been found 25 years after being kidnapped--by a killer who is still on the loose

The summer of 1985 changed Reggie's life. Thirteen, awkward, and without a father, she finds herself mixed up with her school's outcasts--Charlie, the local detective's son, and Tara, a goth kid who has a mental hold over Reggie and harbors a dark secret. That same summer a serial killer called Neptune begins kidnapping women. He leaves their severed hands on the police department steps and, five days later, displays their bodies around town. Just when Reggie needs her mother Vera--an ex-model with many "boyfriends" and a thirst for gin--the most, Vera's hand is found on the steps. But after five days, there's no body and Neptune disappears.

Now a successful architect who left her hometown behind after that horrific summer, Reggie doesn't trust anyone and lives with few attachments. But when she gets a call from a homeless shelter saying that her mother has been found alive, Reggie must confront the ghosts of her past and find Neptune before he kills again.

With her signature style, Jennifer McMahon portrays the dark side of adolescent friendship and introduces characters who haunt the imagination, along with a disturbing web of secrets, betrayals, and murder.

Author Notes

Jennifer McMahon was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1968. She received a BA from Goddard College in 1991 and studied poetry for a year in the MFA in Writing Program at Vermont College. Before becoming full-time writer in 2000, she worked as a house painter, farm worker, homeless shelter staff member, and counselor for adults and kids with mental illness. Her first novel, Promise Not to Tell, was published in 2007. Her other works include Island of Lost Girls, Dismantled, and My Tiki Girl. In 2014, her title The Winter People made The New York Times Best Seller List.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (1)

Publisher's Weekly Review

At the start of this haunting work of literary suspense from bestseller McMahon (Don't Breathe a Word), Vermont architect Reggie Dufrane receives a startling phone call-her idolized mother, Vera, who was snatched by the notorious serial killer known as Neptune when Reggie was 13, has been found alive. Flashback 25 years to 1985 Brighton Falls, Conn. Even before her mother's severed right hand, like those of Neptune's other female victims, shows up on the police station steps, followed by lurid revelations about Vera's life, the fatherless teen has been struggling as a vulnerable outsider, far too enmeshed with fellow outcasts Charlie, the detective's son on whom she has an unrequited crush, and Tara, the daring goth. Now, for the first time in decades, mother and daughter return to Brighton Falls, where they discover, to their peril, that Neptune may be back. Grippingly plotted, this intricate, character-driven story seamlessly shifts time as McMahon explores such favorite themes as dark familial secrets, flawed relationships, and the potentially destructive power of sex, all anchored in a vividly evoked suburban Connecticut landscape. You won't soon forget Reggie, fierce yet fragile, but likely to stick with you even longer is the central conundrum of the extent to which our pasts enslave us and how much we can set ourselves free. Agent: Daniel Lazar, Writers House. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.