What happens when we’re forced to look closely at the myths and stories that shape our families? The New York Times bestselling author of the acclaimed literary thrillers After I’m Gone, I’d Know You Anywhere, Every Secret Thing, and What the Dead Know takes on the frailty of memory and the way that ever-evolving standards can create villains where heroes once stood.

“She’s one of the best novelists around, period.”—Washington Post

Luisa “Lu” Brant is the newly elected state’s attorney of Howard County, Maryland, a job in which her widower father famously served. Fiercely intelligent and ambitious, she sees an opportunity to burnish her reputation by trying a homeless man accused of beating a woman to death in her home. It’s not the kind of case that makes national headlines, but peaceful Howard County doesn’t see many homicides.

As Lu prepares for the trial, the case dredges up painful memories, reminding her small but tight-knit family of the night when her brother, AJ, saved his best friend at the cost of another man’s life. Only eighteen at the time, AJ was found to have acted in self-defense. Now Lu wonders if the events of 1980 happened as she remembers them. Long discrete memories begin to fit together, revealing connections and secrets that Lu never suspected.

The more she learns about her new case, the more questions arise about the past. Why was her brother’s friend attacked? Who was the true victim? Lu discovers that the legal system, the bedrock of her entire life, can no longer provide comfort or even reliable answers. If there is such a thing as the whole truth, Lu realizes—possibly too late—that she would be better off not knowing what it is.

Praise for Laura Lippman

“Laura Lippman is one of my favorite writers. I cannot focus on anything else when I am reading one of her books. Her writing makes me wish I lived a sexier and more violent life.”—Mindy Kaling

“She’s one of the best novelists around, period.”—Washington Post

“Pure delight.”—People

“Lippman has an almost uncanny ability to get into the heads of her characters—the good guys and the not-so-good guys—and to bring them vividly alive.”—Baltimore Sun

“I never miss Laura Lippman’s novels.”—Anna Quindlen, New York Times Book Review

“One of the genre’s most talented writers.”—Chicago Sun-Times

“Lippman is a writing powerhouse.”—USA Today