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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