Scottoline's latest stand-alone domestic drama centers on three people who share a deadly past. In the present, Allie Garvey lies to her husband about returning to her suburban Philadelphia hometown to attend the funeral of her first crush. Also present are former popular rich kids Sasha and Julian. The narrative quickly heads back to the summer of 1999, when the three high-schoolers formed an unlikely group, along with friends Kyle and David. Each teen has his or her own personal secrets: Allie's mom has been in a deep depression since Allie's sister died from cystic fibrosis the year before; Sasha's jet-setting parents leave her at home alone for weeks at a time; new-kid Kyle and his mom have run away from the terrible crimes his father committed in their hometown. But nothing compares to the secret they will carry with them for the next 20 years: Who was responsible for the bullet in the gun during their drunken game of Russian roulette? Scottoline fills the pages with twists and turns and plenty of skeletons in family closets. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Best-selling Scottoline has many fans, and they will race to the end of her latest.--Rebecca Vnuk Copyright 2010 Booklist

During the summer of 1999, in an idyllic suburban housing development near the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Allie Garvey and three teenage friends play a prank-a game of Russian Roulette with an empty gun-that turns deadly in this page-turner from bestseller Scottoline (After Anna). The four of them tell no one what happened that day, and what transpired only becomes clear later on. Allie thinks getting caught would be the worst thing that could happen, but living with the secret is far worse. Twenty years later, she has chronic health issues and a failing marriage because of the guilt. When one of Allie's co-conspirators commits suicide on the anniversary of that awful day, she goes home for the funeral and decides she can't keep the secret any longer. But Allie soon discovers the truth is far different than she remembers. Only an awkward closing twist undercuts a heartfelt tale that touches on family, marriage, justice, and how emotional wounds drive the choices people make. Scottoline's fans will be well satisfied. Agent: Robert Gottlieb, Trident Media Group. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Twenty years after a member of a clique of Pennsylvania high schoolers dies violently, death threatens to reduce the surviving members of the favored circle to zero.Even though she lives with her parents in tony Brandywine Hunt, Allie Garvey isn't really a charter member of Sasha Barrow's clique. Her involvement dates only from the moment when she and the glamorous Sasha, whom she happens to have run into while out jogging, come upon their neighbors David Hybrinski and Julian Browne digging up something the boys jealously guard from sight. The treasured item is a .38 revolver, and although Allie recoils from it, once Sasha sees it, she can't seem to forget about it. When Kyle Gallagher, a newcomer to the neighborhood already burdened with an unspeakable secret, finds Sasha's lost cat in a tree and returns it to her, he too is drawn into the little circle, which abruptly dissolves when a drunken dare goes terribly wrong, leaving one of them dead and the others variously traumatized and scrambling for cover. The Bakerton police don't come calling because they suspect nothing, but the years that follow bring no peace to Allie, and the apparent suicide of another member of the clique on the 20th anniversary of the first death makes her resolve to confront the others with her determination to speak out about the dark secret they share. It's a resolve that will carry a high price, and not just for her. The veteran creator of the law firm of Rosato and DiNunzio (Feared, 2018, etc.) brings her troubled teens and the equally screwed-up adults they become to melodramatically vivid life, slowly ratcheting up the tempo right up to the last muffled twist.The author's acknowledgments call her latest stand-alone a "deep domestic," a description it would be hard to improve onas long as you understand that what's deep are the emotions, not the ideas. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.