cover image Cover Me in Darkness: Old Wounds Run Deep

Cover Me in Darkness: Old Wounds Run Deep

Eileen Rendahl. Midnight Ink, $15.99 trade paper (288p) ISBN 978-0-7387-5020-0

In this disturbing suspense novel from Rendahl (Kernel of Truth, as Kristi Abbott), Lisa Framingham’s apparent suicide shocks her daughter, Amanda Sinclair, a lab tech at Chicago-based Bellefountaine Cosmetics. Years before, when Amanda was 17, she and her mother had been members of Patrick Collier’s cult, Children of the Greater God, until Lisa, who had mental health problems, killed Amanda’s three-year-old brother and was institutionalized. Meanwhile, Collier is now up for parole as he nears the end of a prison sentence for misuse of church funds. Among Lisa’s meager belongings, Amanda discovers items that make her think her mother was murdered. Threats starts to come in as her investigation deepens. Amanda finds solace in her job, doing product tests that could significantly boost Bellefountaine’s fortunes, until she uncovers a problem there as well. Pressure at work and home unexpectedly conjoin, driving emotionally fragile Amanda to the brink as the book builds to its melodramatic finish. (Dec.)