The Man I Knew

by Christine Barfknecht

I'm your lover and your best friend.We share a life, but do you know who I am?It's supposed to be a quick stop at the mall, a last minute errand. To Lia Drake, it doesn't feel right from the start. Maybe it's the eerie silence as closing time looms. Maybe it's the hooded stranger watching her every move. Or maybe she's just on edge after an emotionally draining day at her job with Child Protective Services. But within minutes, gunfire peppers the hallways, sending Lia and her husband, John, cowering in a storeroom. Hiding does little good. Footsteps near. Gunshots explode. John's lifeless body pins Lia to the floor.Overwhelmed with grief, Lia assumes it's another random act of violence until police suggest that John had been the target. It doesn't make sense. John is easy going, funny, and genuinely kind-hearted. She can't think of anyone who doesn't like him, yet alone someone who would want to see him dead.But Lia has demons in her closet that could be to blame. A quest for answers reveals more than Lia bargained for. Every new detail exposes a suspect with motive to kill. Worse, those details paint an unrecognizable picture of John, revealing a side to him she knew nothing about.Lia's desperation lands her in a race for time with John's increasingly restless killer. It could be a complete stranger, or someone she trusts. If she doesn't figure it out soon, she'll become their next victim.

ebook

First published May 18, 2019

About the author

Christine Barfknecht has a passion for weaving the darkest bits of the human psyche into page-turning fiction. She has been crafting stories since long before she printed her first word and credits her overactive imagination to a lifelong love of reading, primarily the kind of mysteries that kept her hiding beneath the covers late into the night.

Christine lives in rural Wisconsin with her husband and children where she is also an entrepreneur in virtual bookkeeping. In addition to reading and writing, she enjoys gardening, crafts, being with family, and traveling. APPLE OF MY EYE is her debut novel.