Kelly Lund is 17 and lives in the Hollywood area on the fringes of the lives of the rich and famous. Two years earlier her twin sister, Catherine, committed suicide, leaving her already fractured family well and truly broken. Her only friend at school, Bellamy, is the daughter of a famous actor, Sterling Marshall. She invites Kelly in to her world and her home, introduces her to her family and her dad’s friend, the director John McFadden. Kelly is soon hanging out with Bellamys’ friends, especially Vincent, McFadden’s son. She stays out late, drinks, smokes pot and uses cocaine. After an all-day bender she and her friends head back to Vincent’s home in the Hollywood Hills, where his father is hosting a wrap party for the completion of his latest film. Somehow Kelly ends up in a room with John McFadden, listening to him argue with Vincent. She is not sure how, but she ends up with a gun in her hand and shoots McFadden three times. Open-and-shut case, it would seem: drug-addled teenager kills in confused rage. Or so it appears from the outside.

Thirty years later, Lund is out of jail and back with her husband, Shane Marshall, Bellamy’s brother. They married when she was in prison, much to Bellamy’s disapproval. She has never forgiven Kelly for McFadden’s death. Late that evening, Kelly takes a call from her father-in-law and rushes out to see him. The next morning, he is found shot dead in his home. It isn’t long before the police and the press start wondering if Kelly has done it again.

A tightly written thriller with enough twists and turns to keep you reading until the last page.

Reviewed by David Johnson