CAN'T HIDE WHAT'S INSIDE

A grieving mother will do anything to avenge her child in Heigelmann’s novel.

After Madison Sanders’ boyfriend abandoned her when she was pregnant, she had to raise her son, Elijah, as a single parent. But, now she’s in a good place: She has a new best friend, Brittany, at her new marketing job, and her 4-year-old son is healthy and happy. Then, her life takes a dark turn when she becomes the victim of workplace sexual harassment. A group of men who call themselves “the Wolf Pack” have targeted her, and she must decide what to do. Then a shocking and heartbreaking accident occurs, and as a result, Elijah dies and Madison is horribly injured. She’s left to wonder if she is responsible for her child’s death, and if not, then who is? Meanwhile, Don Carson has been put on leave from the police force and has opened his own private detective business. Madison comes to him for help in finding her child’s killer, but Carson is not exactly whom he presents himself to be. Indeed, many things are not as they seem, Madison discovers, as she tries to pick up the pieces of her life; along the way, she falls in love with a new man and turns to her mother for support despite their troubled history. Heigelmann has crafted a striking psychological drama that carefully and thoughtfully explores the despair that victims of abuse and sexual harassment experience. Madison is shown to be a complex character with an arc that’s surprising and compelling. Some secondary characters feel underdeveloped in comparison, but Heigelmann compensates for this with a fast-paced plot, and the chain of events that leads to Madison’s breakdown feels realistic. Overall, it’s a well-crafted story that maintains a good balance of believability and unpredictability.

An engagingly emotional thriller with surprising plot turns.