They were a beautiful, brilliant accomplished-a distinguished family that had been the New England town's chief benefactors, until a brutal crime ripped them apart and nearly destroyed with shame.A passionate, riveting book about a family that was torn by secrecy...
I really enjoyed page this book it was a page turner and I never would have guessed the secret.
Now I know why Belva Plain is such a celebrated novelist. A fine romance/mystery with many plot twistings and turnings.
From back cover: First came the sin.--- Then the lies.
He was handsome, charming, irresistable, and an eighteen-year-old lady-killer, her uncle Cliff's stepson, Ted. But in one terrible night he would shatter the life of fourteen-year-old Charlotte Dawes and nearly destroy her family.
Years afterward, Charlotte would remember that night with fear and loathing, with pain that could be banished only by her work as a gifted architect, building a new world for others as she conceals her own.
For Charlotte's family, prime employers in New England mill town, what happened to Charlotte was the beginning of the end. Her father is left shattered by his daughter's pain. Her troubled mother is unable to cope. And her distinguished family has fallen from grace, plunged into debt.
The only rock that sustains them in their darkest hours is a woman whose own guilty secret has given her the power to ruin--or resurrect--the family to whom she owes her life.
A very readable iteraction between characters and events.
Excellent story that keeps you interested. Narrator Cherry Jones does an excellent job. Highly recommend!
Large print book. This Belva Plain novel revolves around a family nearly destroyed by secrecy.
When Charlotte Dawes is raped by her cousin-by-marriage, Ted at 14, her parents are furious. Charlotte becomes pregnant, and as she recovers from a ruptured tubal pregnancy both parents are at her bedside. Meanwhile, Ted continues assaulting women until he is caught and indicted. He then escapes from prison into the night.
Eight years later, Charlotte is working in Manhattan and despairs of forming a relationship with a man, until she meets Roger Heywood who coaxes her out of her traumatic fear of sex. Disaster follows when a flood happens, potentially revealing a terrible secret. It was a little farfetched but I notice with Belva Plain that you really learn to care about the characters. I give it an A+!
