Lana Granger is hiding a dark past: seven years ago her father murdered her mother, and Lana helped bury the body. She’s changed her name, enrolled at an obscure college in upstate New York, a couple thousand miles from her home in Florida. Her father is in prison, on death row for a crime not everyone believes he committed. Lana refuses to see him, and lives with her aunt Bridgette when she’s not at school. Although she’s inherited a substantial trust fund from her mother, she finds herself in need of a job. Her advisor, Langdon Hewes helps her find a position as a part time nanny for Luke, an eleven year old boy with serious emotional and anger issues. Although Lana and Luke are getting on suprisingly well, he seems to relish trying to manipulate her and, clearly, she is out of his league when it comes to brains.
Lana’s friend Beck goes missing, and the police want to know what Lana might have to do with it. But to reveal her relatioship with Beck means revealing her past–something she is determined to keep hidden. As time goes by she suspects Luke has more than a little to do with her friend’s disappearance.
Meanwhile, a second plot develops: An unnamed woman writes in her diary. Her newborn son has her at the end of her wits. He cries all the time. He never sleeps. Despite help from her mother and husband, nothing seems to calm him. The pediatrician calls it colic, and promises it will be over in a few weeks. In the meantime, the diary writer is diagnosed with post-partum depression. Eventually the baby settles in, and the diary writer recovers from her depression.
But mom still worries about her son: the way he looks at her, the way he acts, maybe only things a mother would see. When others disagree, she tries not to worry, but as he grows, his behavior worsens.
The two women have one thing in common: they both have/had fathers incarcerated for murder.
As Lana’s story progresses, and we learn more about the diary writer, their stories begin to converge. No one is who they seem to be.
I love the way Ms. Unger weaves her tales. They keep the reader (at least this reader) wondering until the very end, and when the truth emerges it’s not only a shock, but a testament to the skill of a great writer.
“In the Blood” gets five stars from me. If you like the twists and turns of a good mystery, you’ll love this one.
Susannah Willey Writes 