Hillier's thriller jumps back and forth in time, deftly weaving a web of secrets and lies, daring escape, broken trust, revenge, and things that aren't quite as they seem.
...and so this was her life, because it had always been her life, and it would either kill her, or she would survive it.
Paris Peralta is arrested in her home bathroom. She's holding a straight razor and covered in blood, and her celebrity husband Jimmy Peralta, a 68-year-old comedian who's been making a recent comeback--is dead in the bathtub with a cut across his femoral artery.
Paris loved her husband, and she's shocked and grieved that he's dead. But she's also alert enough to know that because of the inevitable publicity, the fiction of her current life--a peaceful, comfortable life that she spent so long cultivating--is about to be upended, and her safety along with it.
Because when photos surface of Paris being taken away in handcuffs, she knows that dark forces from her past will almost certainly come calling.
Because while you can reinvent yourself, you can’t outrun yourself. As a woman once reminded her a long time ago, the common denominator in all the terrible things that have happened to you is you.
Meanwhile, killer Ruby Reyes, the Ice Queen, was convicted of a similar murder twenty-five years earlier. She knows who Paris Peralta really is, and when Ruby is released from prison early, she's more than willing to try to sacrifice Paris and destroy her careful web of lies.
Jennifer Hillier weaves a gripping story that jumps back in forth in time from when Paris was a young victim to her present, in which she's taken charge of her life and controls her destiny--or so she thought.
Things We Do in the Dark involves mistaken identities, betrayals, secrets and lies, fierce loyalty between friends who are like family--and horrific cruelties enacted by blood relations.
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I received a prepublication digital edition of this book courtesy of St. Martin's Press and NetGalley.
Jennifer Hillier is also the author of Little Secrets and Jar of Hearts.