After nine years in prison for attempted murder of a drunk
driver who killed her son, David, Alice Kessler returns to
Gray's Island. Alice is hoping to start her life over with
her younger son, Jeremy, who's living with her ex-husband,
Randy.
As a result of the attempted murder, Owen White is confined
to a wheelchair and intent on making life impossible for
Alice. He attempts to use Alice's brother-in-law, Gary, a
police officer for Gray's Island. Gary has been corrupted
and blackmailed by Owen, without the knowledge of his wife,
Denise, and their family. The plot is tangled with two
generations of family.
Alice meets Colin McGinty, an attorney from New York, and
finds that her grandmother, Eleanor, and Colin's
grandfather, William, were in love but married to others.
After losing his wife in the 9/11 disaster, Colin is trying
to overcome his loss and the alcohol addiction he developed
after her death. There's an instant attraction between
them.
Colin's grandfather had painted a portrait of Eleanor that
revealed his love for her. "Woman in Red" has become quite
famous and the only painting retained by William until his
death. Now, Colin has inherited his grandfather's home, as
well as the painting.
When Jeremy, now 14, is accused of the rape of a high
school girl while both are intoxicated, Colin is persuaded
to defend him. Suspecting this is a setup by Owen, Alice
and Collin attempt to clear Jeremy of the charges.
The plots in this novel are spellbinding and the love is
clearly shown between the characters. Eileen Goudge
has created an intriguing story by revisiting past
generations and intertwining them with current generations
of the same families to bring the past full circle. There
are many surprises awaiting you in the reading of this
novel. I enjoyed it completely.
A powerful story of love and redemption, and what one woman
will do to overcome the buried secrets of her past.
Alice Kessler spent nine years in prison for the attempted
murder of the drunk driver who killed her son. Now she's
returned home to Gray's Island to reconnect with the son she
left behind. Her boy, Jeremy, now a sullen teenager, is
wrongly accused of rape, and mother and son are thrown
together in a desperate attempt to prove his innocence.
She's aided by Colin McGinty, a recovering alcoholic and
9/11 widower, also recently returned to the island in the
aftermath of his grandfather's death. Colin's grandfather, a
famous artist, is best known for his haunting portrait,
"Woman in Red," which happens to be of Alice's grandmother.
In a tale that weaves the past with the present, we come
to know the story behind the portrait, of the forbidden
wartime romance between William McGinty and Eleanor Styles,
and the deadly secret that bound them more tightly than even
their love for each other. A secret that, more than half a
century later, is about to be unburied, as Alice and Colin
are drawn into a fragile romance of their own and the ghost
of an enemy from long ago surfaces in the form of his
grandson, the very man responsible for sending Alice to
prison.
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