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A Slice of Life
by Francine Brokaw
The Secret Between Us by Barbara Delinsky
Oh, what a tangled web we weave. Best-selling author Barbara Delinsky spins an emotional web in this page-turning story of a mother’s love and devotion for her kids and desire to keep them safe and protected.
When Dr. Deborah Monroe picks up her daughter Grace from a party, it is a dark and rainy night. The visibility is minimal, but even so she lets her daughter drive home. Grace has a permit but not her full license. They’re driving along the rural road when all of a sudden they are hit by something, or they hit something. Neither one saw what it was and when they stop the car to see what they hit they discover Grace’s teacher lying on the ground. Deborah checks him over then realizes what an accident would do to her daughter’s record. She sends her track star daughter running home while she waits for the paramedics. Well, this being a small town, Deborah knows almost everyone, and that includes the Chief of Police, who responds to the location as well as the medics. He never asked who was driving the car. He just assumed it was Deborah, and she lets him and everyone think she was at the wheel. Then, later, she relays that information to Grace who is shocked not only by the accident but also by the lie her mother told to protect her.
The victim didn’t look in critical condition, so Deborah saw no harm in taking the blame for the accident. In all honesty, even if she had been at the wheel she wouldn’t have seen the man. The visibility was too poor to see anyone, let alone a man without any reflective tape on his outfit.
So, the lie is born and everyone should come out of this all right. At least Deborah protected her daughter, which was what she wanted to do. But lies have a way of taking over and little by little things start to deteriorate – namely Grace who is feeling very guilty.
Between the accident, learning about her unmarried sister’s pregnancy, trying to get her sister and her father to be civil to each other, trying to get her father to realize he as a problem with alcohol, trying to forge a smoother relationship with her ex-husband who had left them to move to Vermont and marry his old flame, trying to keep her medical practice going (this is a doctor who makes house calls!), keeping an eye on her young son who has a terrible eye problem that should be able to be cleared up with surgery as soon as he gets older, and life in general, things snowball out of control until a final breaking point. Will the mother and daughter who prior to the accident had a wonderful relationship come through this without too many emotional scars?
This is a touching and engrossing story of what can happen when we do one wrong thing even though we think it is for the right reason. It’s a page turner and you’ll be hooked from the first page. Delinsky writes a great tale that you will sail through, as one after another, things start to come apart in the lives of these characters. It’s a great read!
© 2008 Francine Brokaw
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