Book excerpt: From one of America's best loved and most prolific novelists: the story of a woman coming to terms with the violent death of her mother, and uncovering all the hidden secrets stowed away over the years. Nikki Eaton is a journalist on the local newspaper. She loves wearing short skirts and nail polish. She's having an affair with a married man, and every time she visits her mother, she feels pangs of guilt for the lifestyle she leads. One day her life is turned upside-down. Worried because her mother hasn't returned her phone-calls, she drives over to her childhood home, only to discover her mother has been murdered and lies stone-cold on the garage floor. From this catalclysmic event unfolds the next year of Nikki's life as she reassess her relationship with her mother and discovers secrets about her past which reveal the cracks in the comfortable, suburban existence her family has built up around itself. This is a dark and unsettling novel from one of America's finest writers.