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.
No excerpt available.
© 2003-2026