Angela works as a caterer in the Hamptons, where rich New Yorkers come for their summer vacations. She regularly caters for Susannah, a TV journalist, and becomes good friends with her. She meets Jason Powell at one of Susannah’s parties and they get married, and Angela uses it to reboot her own life, and put her horrid past behind her:
When she was a teen, she was abducted and held prisoner for three years, and she was rescued with an infant in her arms, after the police have a shootout with her abductor. She recovers from her ordeal, and with the help of her parents, rebuilds her life. She has been married six years now, and her son is twelve. Jason is a celebrity author, professor and consulting economist, and they are doing very well for themselves.
Now, her husband is first accused of sexual harrasment by an intern in his consultancy, and then another woman, a client, comes forward with reports of sexual assault and rape. Her husband’s firebrand lawyer is convinced she can get him off, but asks Angela to testify for him, and that threatens to bring out all her past secrets, and also affect her son’s future.
This is a suspense novel, with a bit of legal drama thrown in. But there some odd issues I have with it. The main protagonists and their behaviour does not seem to be logical.
- I find it unusual that a high-flying TV journalist is besties with Angela, a high-school dropout caterer.
- And Jason… any professional with half a brain would know not to get involved with clients, and would know how to behave with interns. Jason is drawn up as a squeaky clean college professor, and it is at odds with his persona which is revealed later.
- The parents work in the Hamptons as cleaners for people’s summer homes, but at the same time, they constantly talk of the same city folk derisively, and are very distrustful of them. I would understand if they were from some rural community, but not the Hamptons!
The end was predictable, partially. The “who” was evident, but not the “why”. The “why” part still managed to surprise, so the book was not a total loss. On the whole, it is worth reading for the excellent way it ended.