Alafair Burke's first standalone is a must read! You'll lose yourself in this riveting story of Alice Humphrey, a woman whose nightmare begins when she goes to work at her new gallery job, only to find everything gone—and a murdered man on the floor. You can't guess the plot twists that follow, as Alice's whole word turns upside down and she has to question everyone and everything she thought was real. And the ending is a shocker you'll never see coming.

Truly I never thought of myself as writing legal thrillers, and I still don't think I do. I write stories about women.

Likewise, I would never be so rude as to not interrupt a friend. How else would she know I was listening?

don't argue what you don't believe in. Rule number one, in law and in life.

The truth is that every writer, whether it's fiction or nonfiction, is trying to write something truly original and that's what I think I'm doing.

My theory is that you find out who your true friends are when something good happens to you, not when something bad happens to you. Everybody loves you when something bad happens to you. Then you're easy to love.

Even people who counted their blessings never counted them in the morning. For one thing, there wasn't time.