Pocket
April 2011
On Sale: March 22, 2011
336 pages ISBN: 1439180989 EAN: 9781439180983 Kindle: B003E6M7A8 Mass Market Paperback / e-Book Add to Wish List
At age eighty-two and in failing health, Olivia Morrow knows
she has little time left. The last of her line, she faces a
momentous choice: expose a long-held family secret, or take
it with her to her grave.
Olivia has in her possession letters from her deceased
cousin Catherine, a nun, now being considered for
beatification by the Catholic Church—the final step before
sainthood. In her lifetime, Sister Catherine had founded
seven hospitals for disabled children. Now the cure of a
four-year-old boy dying of brain cancer is being attributed
to her. After his case was pronounced medically hopeless,
the boy’s desperate mother had organized a prayer crusade to
Sister Catherine, leading to his miraculous recovery.
The letters Olivia holds are the evidence that Catherine
gave birth at age seventeen to a child, a son, and gave him
up for adoption. Olivia knows the identity of the young man
who fathered Catherine’s child: Alex Gannon, who went on to
become a world-famous doctor, scientist, and inventor
holding medical patents.
Now, two generations later, thirty-one-year-old pediatrician
Dr. Monica Farrell, Catherine’s granddaughter, stands as the
rightful heir to what remains of the family fortune. But in
telling Monica who she really is, Olivia would have to
betray Catherine’s wishes and reveal the story behind
Monica’s ancestry.
The Gannon fortune is being squandered by Alex’s nephews
Greg and Peter Gannon, and other board members of the Gannon
Foundation, who camouflage their profligate lifestyles with
philanthropy.
Now their carefully constructed image is cracking. Greg, a
prominent financier, is under criminal investigation, and
Peter, a Broadway producer, is a
suspect in the murder of a young woman who has been
extorting money from him.
The only people aware of Olivia’s impending choice are those
exploiting the Gannon inheritance. To silence Olivia and
prevent Monica from learning the secret, some of them will
stop at nothing—even murder.
Clark’s riveting new novel explores the juxtaposition of
medical science and religious faith, and the search for
identity by the daughter of a man adopted at birth.