cover image Mad River Road

Mad River Road

Joy Fielding, . . Atria, $25 (370pp) ISBN 978-0-7434-8802-0

In the nail-biting 18th suspense novel from Fielding (Puppet ), a trio of women trapped in a web of lies, danger and self-revelation must confront their deepest fears. Lily and Emma, each a young mother with an adorable young son, are carving out new lives in a depressing Dayton, Ohio, neighborhood that caters to single mothers, while Jamie, in Florida, is a 29-year-old single dealing with the recent death of her mother and an affair with a married man who's been hospitalized. Both Lily, an aspiring writer, and Emma, a compulsive liar and shoplifter, struggle to recover from tragedies that led both to assume new names. When a sexy but dangerous man Jamie meets in a bar persuades her to quit her job and escape her perfectionist sister, the pretty but insecure blonde winds up on a wild road trip to Ohio that will inextricably link her fate with that of Lily and Emma. Packed with breathless twists and turns, Fielding's latest set of women in jeopardy excite and delight. (Jan.)