Colin McGinty is a former prosecutor for the New York
District Attorney who is looking for a new start. In the
aftermath of 9/11 and the death of his wife, Colin found
solace in the bottom of a bottle. He is now sober, and
his only chance at staying that way is to get away from
the city. He decides to take up residence on Gray's
Island in the cottage his grandfather, William, left to
him in his will. Colin must carve a new life for himself
with no one to keep him company except for a dog. He also
has the comfort of a mysterious lady in a red dress;
however, she is the subject of the one painting that his
grandfather refused to sell. Who was she to his
grandfather? Will Colin break free from his self-imposed
prison?
Alice Kessler has just been released from prison after
spending nine years behind bars. She returns home to
Gray's Island to try to reconnect with her teenage son,
Jeremy. Her family has always lived on the island, and
there are rumors that William McGinty painted her
grandmother, Eleanor Styles, though no one has seen the
painting. The hardest part of returning to the island is
the mayor, Owen White, the man she attempted to kill, and
the reason why her oldest son is dead. She seems to
finally find her niche in the community when her world is
once again shattered. Her son is wrongly accused of rape,
and she will do anything to prove his innocence. She
seeks advice from Colin McGinty. Will he be able to help
her son? Will she ever have a peaceful existence again?
WOMAN IN RED is an exceptional novel. It is two stories
that are combined flawlessly into a family drama spanning
sixty years. There is the present with Colin and Alice
and there is the past with their grandparents, William and
Eleanor. I enjoyed the glimpses into the past with the
secret affair, the painting, and the crime that bound them
together. The present has its appeal with two people
trying to free themselves from their terrible past and
their hope for a better future. The ending brought
everything full circle. This is a fantastic book, and the
pages couldn't be turned fast enough. Eileen Goudge has
created a brilliant story by intertwining the past and the
present around a mysterious painting of a WOMAN IN RED.
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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