The Weight of Lies

Well-to-do New Yorker Megan Ashley, the unhappy narrator of this fascinating suspense novel from Carpenter (Burying the Honeysuckle Girls), is estranged from her mother, bestselling author Frances Ashley. Forty years earlier, Frances’s first novel, Kitten, became an instant hit, spawning millions of cult followers. The story told in Kitten is based on the murder of a child named Kim Baker, which occurred on Bonny Island off the Georgia coast, where young Frances was staying at a secluded hotel. While the murder was ascribed to Kim’s mother, Frances’s novel names eight-year-old Kitten, a character based on one Dorothy Kitchens, as the psychotic killer. Having gotten a deal to write a book about life with Frances, Megan travels to Bonny Island to interview Dorothy about how the novel affected her. With each shocking new discovery, the reader’s sympathies shift. Who can Megan trust? Her fast-talking agent? Her unreliable mother? Dorothy? The islanders who work for Dorothy? The multiple perspectives help make this an unputdownable read. Agent: Amy Cloughley, Kimberley Cameron & Associates. (June)