About this item
From the award-winning author of The Absence of Mercy, comes a gripping and darkly psychological novel about family, suspicion, and the price we are willing to pay to protect those we love the most.It's the summer of 1954 and the residents of Cottonwood, California are dying. At the center of it all is six-year-old Danny McCray, a strange and silent child the townspeople regard with fear and superstition, and who appears to bring ruin to those around him. Even his own mother is plagued by an illness that is slowly consuming her. Sheriff Jim Kent has watched the people of his town suffer, increasingly aware of the whispers and rumors surrounding the boy--and he worries someone might take drastic action to protect their loved ones. Then a stranger arrives and Danny and his ten-year-old brother Sean go missing.
About the Author
John Burley grew up in Maryland near the Chesapeake Bay. He worked as a paramedic and firefighter before attending medical school in Chicago and completing his emergency medicine residency training at University of Maryland Medical Center and the R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. His debut novel, THE ABSENCE OF MERCY, received the National Black Ribbon Award in recognition of an author who brings a fresh, new voice to suspense writing. John lives in Northern California where he works as an emergency department physician. His books have been described as dark psychological thrillers that take place in small-town America. For more information, go to www.john-burley.com.
