On a sunny summer morning by the sea in New England, Susan Ford’s cocoon of privilege is threatened when an Iraqi man from her distant past boards a plane in Baghdad to come find her.

We meet Mrs Ford in her carefully curated life – Blenheim Spaniels, Watch Hill Cottage in Rhode Island, close community, not a hair out of place… Mrs Ford has everything under control. Until the FBI arrive at her front door…

The book focuses on the current time (2014) with flashes back to the Summer of 1979, on the outskirts of declining Detroit where college coed Susan meets reckless and charismatic Annie. An unlikely duo, but their friendship will change both of their lives forever. Slowly, the reader is taken on a journey to unravel Mrs Ford’s past as her present life begins to crumble.

This is Deborah Goodrich Royce’s first novel as her career has largely been focused on acting and screenwriting. Perhaps her expertise in the area of screenwriting contributes greatly to the gritty feel of this book and the overwhelming feeling that it would make a fantastic movie on the big screen. For a debut, this was strong and entertaining enough to keep the momentum going throughout. Self control and calculating precision combine as the characters lives and lies are exposed.