Aiden, a retired university professor, quietly grieves the loss of his wife, Carol, and his estrangement from his adult son, Max. On the surface, Aiden lives—or, more accurately, lived—a picture-perfect life teeming with love, family, and success. But underneath that fragile surface are secrets that Aiden has never admitted to himself, much less to his wife and son. With the fateful bell of a computer notification, these secrets ricochet back into Aiden’s life in the form of an email from Meggie, a college student with whom Aiden had a fiery affair decades earlier. When Meggie reveals that she and Aiden share a child together, a daughter that resulted from an impassioned vacation in Italy, Aiden confronts the question, “What is the cost of unburying truths?” The identity of this mysterious daughter threatens to destroy what little is left of Aiden’s relationship with his son, who’s newly in love and reaching across burned bridges to seek his father’s support. Aiden, Max, and an enigmatic young woman—her identity as much a secret as her intentions—wrestle with the fallout of a choice made long ago. Gray days of grief and regret are stirred into a whirlwind of hidden identities, sinister crimes, and new truths as a broken family finds its way back together again. Coyne spins a twisting tale sure to entice lovers of family drama, mystery, and crime narratives. Every page seems to expose a shocking new detail, derailing readers who think they have it all figured out after parsing prose that’s heavy with exposition. The characters are titillating in their unreliability, perfectly exemplifying the theme of delicious distrust that bleeds through each chapter. While the work could benefit from certain tweaks, such as more buildup before a major revelation and a better balance between dialogue and inner monologues, Aiden’s story is thrilling in a theatrical sort of way, and it will keep readers glued to the page.
