Dimensions
152 x 233 x 25mm
Joyce Carol Oates writing as Rosamund Smith.
A tale as haunting as a bad memory and as chilling as its reality
Matt McBride remembers the first victim. He was barely out of junior high when the mutilated body of the popular, pretty teenager was uncovered in the desolate New Jersey Pine Barrens and the horror haunts his memory still. Although Matt had hardly known the girl, he has long felt guilt at not having been able to somehow prevent the atrocity.
Now another attractive young woman has disappeared. Matt knew this victim, too. Just possibly he knew her more intimately than he can admit. By degrees Matt becomes obsessed with a guilt he can neither comprehend nor allay. The fabric of his seemingly happy marriage begins to unravel. His increasingly erratic behaviour heightens police suspicions. It also draws official attention away from an artist - a man of tortured memory - to a shattering confrontation.
