The Thing About Amanda: A Story in Letters
When Merle Bennett's holiday plans are upended by her mother's illness, she finds herself grounded in the United States — and unexpectedly drawn into a mystery she can't let go.
Through a steady exchange of letters and emails with her partner Pascal back in France, Merle begins to unspool the story of Amanda: her late husband Harry's elderly aunt, now serving time in prison for the death of her husband Clifton. A woman who raised Harry after his parents died. A woman with secrets.
What really happened on that dark night on Long Island, when a car slid into an oak tree on a dangerous curve and left a child an orphan? The accident was never investigated. No one seemed to ask why. And the more Merle asks, the more the silence around that night begins to feel deliberate.
Armed with curiosity, old newspaper clippings, and the tenacious support of her sisters, Merle traces the threads of a decades-old story — piecing together interviews, documents, and long-buried memories to understand the forces that shaped Harry's life long before she ever knew him.
The Thing About Amanda is a sharp, absorbing epistolary mystery about the secrets families keep, and the women stubborn enough to drag them into the light. A mystery about grief, family loyalty, and the uncomfortable truths we inherit from the dead. Told through letters, emails, and the fragmentary record of lives half-remembered, it builds to a conclusion that is as surprising as it is inevitable.
Genre: Romantic Suspense
When Merle Bennett's holiday plans are upended by her mother's illness, she finds herself grounded in the United States — and unexpectedly drawn into a mystery she can't let go.
Through a steady exchange of letters and emails with her partner Pascal back in France, Merle begins to unspool the story of Amanda: her late husband Harry's elderly aunt, now serving time in prison for the death of her husband Clifton. A woman who raised Harry after his parents died. A woman with secrets.
What really happened on that dark night on Long Island, when a car slid into an oak tree on a dangerous curve and left a child an orphan? The accident was never investigated. No one seemed to ask why. And the more Merle asks, the more the silence around that night begins to feel deliberate.
Armed with curiosity, old newspaper clippings, and the tenacious support of her sisters, Merle traces the threads of a decades-old story — piecing together interviews, documents, and long-buried memories to understand the forces that shaped Harry's life long before she ever knew him.
The Thing About Amanda is a sharp, absorbing epistolary mystery about the secrets families keep, and the women stubborn enough to drag them into the light. A mystery about grief, family loyalty, and the uncomfortable truths we inherit from the dead. Told through letters, emails, and the fragmentary record of lives half-remembered, it builds to a conclusion that is as surprising as it is inevitable.
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Used availability for Lise McClendon's The Thing About Amanda