cover image Only Ever Her

Only Ever Her

Marybeth Mayhew Whalen. Lake Union, $14.95 trade paper (298p) ISBN 978-1-5039-0389-0

Multilayered characters lift this elegantly plotted crime novel from Whalen (The Things We Wish Were True). Annie Taft is preparing to get married, an event many of the citizens of the little town of Ludlow, S.C., are billing as “the wedding of the year... maybe even the decade,” when she receives a letter from Tyson Barnes, an attorney. Barnes tells her of the imminent release from prison of Cordell Lewis, who in his view was unfairly sentenced to life without parole after being convicted of the murder of Lydia Taft, Annie’s mother. Annie was three years old at the time of the crime, and it was her testimony that drew the police’s attention to Lewis. Annie writes back to Barnes in support of Lewis’s release. When Annie goes missing shortly after Lewis leaves prison, long-kept secrets and convenient lies come to light in Ludlow. Whalen builds suspense by shifting among the main players in the drama, including Annie and reporter Laurel Haines, who went to high school with Annie and is keen to write a book about Lydia’s murder. Loads of hidden love stories and small-town gossip will keep readers turning the pages. (May)