In 1951 Samuel Baldwin, an important government employee, was found dead in the family’s rental property in Wichita Hills by his twelve-year-old daughter Lucy.
For several years afterwards, Lucy and her mother lived in Santa Fe where they escaped after the scandal. These events would follow them the rest of their lives. One day Lucy, who was now a well-known children's book author, left New York with her two children and moved into their family home; thus their lives would never be the same.
In this small town, neighbors walked into your home for your door was never closed or locked. They wanted to know your innermost thoughts and if you didn’t share you were labeled “different” and “uncool.” For the neighbors wanted to know everything about each other, and Lucy’s secret life would separate her from her neighbors and into someone who they whispered about. Lucy’s daughter, Maggie, wondered about the secrets her mother never shared with her. Maggie and others wanted to know who the father of Lucy’s two children Maggie and Felix was; why did Lucy tell so many lies; what really happened to Lucy’s father; and why was her mother not like the others? These unanswered questions would cause a riff between Maggie and her mother and lead Maggie to make some very bad, unsafe choices.
This book is reminder of what can happen when secrets and lies are part of who you are and when protective boundaries do not exist.
By Susan Richard Shreves
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