Maureen and Harrold English are the perfect couple, successful journalists and happily married. At least that's what it look like to everyone on the outside, so when Maureen murders harrold, everyone wants to know the real story. Another woman journalist, hoping to get the real story and maybe a book deal out of it, decides to tell Maureen's story. Did Harrold really abuse Maureen or is it just a story to hide an affair? The real story is told in Maureen's letters and interviews with colleagues and townspeople who witnessed it all.

Shreve has created a book that's the very definition of "page turner". It begins in the 1990s with a woman journalist turning over notes, letters, and documents to Maureen's daughter, now grown. Then the story flashes back to December 1970, the night Maureen became Mary and started her new life in rural Maine. The story is told alternately in the voices of Maureen, and several townspeople who befriended her. Although it's clear from the beginning that Maureen has killed Harrold and spent time in jail, Shreve still unfolds the story slowly enough to build the tension and keep the reader involved. I admit to alternately loving and hating Maureen, but I had to keep reminding myself of the setting. Times were different for women in the 60s & 70s. This is a well written story that raises some interesting issues. I'm surprised it hasn't been made into a movie, or has it?