RAINY DAY EXCERPTS: “THE BAD DAUGHTER”

Welcome to another Tuesday celebrating bookish events, First Chapter/Intros, originally hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea and now hosted by I’d Rather Be at the Beach; and Teaser Tuesdays hosted by The Purple Booker.

Today’s feature is a recent download:  The Bad Daughter, by Joy Fielding, a gripping, edge-of-your-seat thriller of family intrigue and dark secrets, from the author of Someone Is Watching and See Jane Run.

 

Intro:  The tingling started in the pit of her stomach, a vague gnawing that quickly traveled to her chest, then spread upward and outward until it reached her neck.  Invisible fingers wrapped around her throat and pressed down hard on her windpipe, cutting off her supply of oxygen, rendering her dizzy and light-headed.  I’m having a heart attack, Robin thought.  I can’t breathe.  I’m going to die.

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Teaser:  The sisters resumed their seats at the table, the only sound the scrape of their spoons against the sides of the ice cream bowls.  “Do you think Kenny’s right that Dad and Cassidy will somehow pull through?” Robin asked after a silence of several minutes. (p.61).

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Synopsis:  A voice mail from her estranged sister, Melanie, sends Robin’s heart racing and her mind spiraling in a full-blown panic attack. Melanie’s message is dire: Their father, his second wife, and his twelve-year-old stepdaughter have been shot—likely in a home invasion—and lie in the hospital in critical condition.

It’s been more than five years since Robin turned her back on her father when he married her best friend. Five years since she said goodbye to her hometown of Red Bluff, California, and became a therapist. More than two years since Robin and Melanie have spoken. Yet even with all that distance and time and acrimony, the past is always with Robin.

Now she must return to the family she left behind. As she attempts to mend fences while her father clings to life, Robin begins to wonder if there is more to the tragedy than a botched burglary attempt. It seems that everyone—Robin’s mercurial sister, her less-than-communicative nephew, her absent brother, and even Tara, her father’s wife—has something to hide. And someone may have put them all in grave danger.

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What do you think?  Would you keep reading?

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