Neighborhood Watch

Cammie McGovern

Publisher: Penguin

Published: Jun 10, 2010

Description:

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In this superb suburban thriller from McGovern (_Eye Contact_), newly tested DNA evidence results in the release from prison of Betsy Treading (aka the Librarian Murderess) after serving 12 years for the bludgeoning of sexy divorcée Linda Sue Nelson, a neighbor in Milford, Conn. Betsy, a somnambulist, had confessed out of fear she'd done the deed while sleepwalking. Back home in Milford, Betsy determines to find out who really killed Linda Sue, who was having an affair with their married neighbor, charismatic author Geoffrey Steadman, who was a friend of Betsy's then husband, Paul. Now divorced from Paul, Betsy accepts temporary lodgings with an old friend and neighbor, Marianne Rashke, founder of the local neighborhood watch group. McGovern, a former Stegner Fellow at Stanford, seductively unreels Betsy's pursuit of the truth one shocking spool at a time. Fans of literary suspense fiction will be well rewarded. 4-city author tour. (June)
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From

Newly released from prison 12 years after being wrongly convicted of murdering her neighbor, suburban librarian Betsy Treading is back in her old community, temporarily living with the only friend who has stuck by her through her incarceration. While grateful that Marianne has taken her in, Betsy is also justifiably wary of the woman whose inexplicable paranoia directly ignited the personal security vendetta that so dramatically influenced events leading up to Linda Sue's murder. Betsy's lawyer has encouraged her to use her return to her old neighborhood to dig for clues that could help put the real killer behind bars, but in reexamining her former life and relationships, Betsy uncovers some unsettling truths about herself as well as the people she thought she could trust the most. Although hampered by flawed logic and a meandering narrative voice, McGovern's engrossing tale of mistrust and deception is made all the more sinister by the false security portrayed behind its conventional white-picket-fence facade. --Carol Haggas