The Map of True Places: A Novel

By Brunonia Barry

“Masterfully woven . . . The Map of True Places is a gripping quest for truth that kept me reading at the edge of my seat to the very last page.” —Lisa Genova, New York Times bestselling author of Still Alice

From Brunonia Barry, the New York Times bestselling author of The Lace Reader, comes an emotionally compelling novel about finding your true place in the world.

A respected Boston psychotherapist, Zee Finch has come a long way from a motherless childhood spent stealing boats. But the actions of a patient throw Zee into emotional chaos and take her back to places she thought she'd left behind.

What starts as a brief visit home to Salem begins a larger journey. Suddenly having to care for her ailing father after his longtime companion moves out, Zee must come to terms with a strained and awkward relationship that has always been marked by half-truths and haunted by the untimely death of her mother. Overwhelmed by her new role, Zee must destroy the existing map of her life and chart a new course—one that will guide her not only into her future but into her past as well.

“An involving, intricately woven story and vivid descriptions of historic Salem.” —Booklist

“A lovingly told story with many well-drawn characters.” —Publishers Weekly 

“Highly readable.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Apr 15, 2010
• ISBN: 9780061992506

Brunonia Barry

Born and raised in Massachusetts, Brunonia Barry studied literature and creative writing at Green Mountain College in Vermont and at the University of New Hampshire. After nearly a decade in Hollywood, Barry returned to Massachusetts, where, along with her husband, she founded an innovative company that creates award-winning word, visual and logic puzzles. Happily married, Barry lives with her husband and her twelve-year old Golden Retriever named Byzantium

Book preview

PROLOGUE

IN THE YEARS WHEN her middle name was Trouble, Zee had a habit of stealing boats. Her father never suspected her of any wrong-doing. He let her run free in those early days after her mother’s death. He was busy being a pirate reenactor, an odd leap for a man who’d been a literary scholar all his life. But those were desperate times, and they were both weary from constantly carrying their loss, unable to put it down except in those brief moments when they could throw themselves into something beyond the reach of their memories.

In her fantasy world, the one where she could forgive herself for what happened that year, Zee liked to think that her father, Finch, would have been proud of her skills as a thief. In her wildest dreams, she pictured him joining her adventure, a huge leap for the professor, but not for the pirate he was quickly becoming.

She had a preference for speedboats. Anything that could do over thirty knots was fair game. There was little security back then, and most of the keys (if there were any) were hidden somewhere on the boats themselves, usually in the most obvious place imaginable.

The game was simple. She would pick a boat that looked fast and sleek, give herself exactly five minutes to break in and get the engine started, and head out of the harbor toward the ocean. Once she passed the confines of Salem, she would open up the engine and point the bow straight out toward Baker’s Island. Later that night she would return the stolen boat.

There was only one rule. She could never return a boat to the same mooring from which she had stolen it. It was a good rule, not just because it presented an additional challenge but also because it was practical. If she put the boat back on the same mooring, she would be much more likely to get caught. Everyone knows that the last thing any good thief should do is revisit the scene of the crime.

Usually Zee would abandon the boat at one of the public wharves that lined Salem’s waterfront. Often it was the one at the Willows, the first wharf you came to when you entered the harbor. But when the cops started looking for her, she began to leave the boats in other, less obvious places. Sometimes she would jump someone else’s mooring. Or she would leave a boat in one of the slips at Derby Wharf, which made it easy to get away, since she lived so close.

Only one time did she mess up and misjudge the fuel level. She was all the way up by Singing Beach in Manchester when the engine died. At first she didn’t believe she had run out of gas. But when she checked the fuel again, her mistake was clear. Fighting the panic that was beginning to overtake her, she tried to come up with a plan. She could easily swim to shore, but if she did, the boat would either drift out to sea or smash against the rocks. For the first time, she was afraid of getting caught. In a strange way, she was grateful that there were no other boats around, no one she could signal for help. Not knowing what else to do, she let the boat drift.

She looked up at the moonless sky, the stars brighter than she had ever seen them, their reflections dissolving in the water around her like an effervescent medicine that seemed to dissolve her panic as well. Here, floating along with the current, staring up at the heavens, she knew that everything would be all right.

When she looked back down at the horizon to get her bearings, she found she had drifted toward shore. A dark outline of something appeared in her peripheral vision, and, when she turned to face it, a wharf came into focus and, on the hill beyond it, a darkened house. She grabbed an oar and began to steer the boat in toward shore, catching the onsweep of tide that propelled it broadside toward the wharf. She grabbed the bowline and jumped, slipping and twisting her ankle a little but keeping the boat from colliding with the wharf. She tied up, securing bow and stern, and scrambled over the rocks to the beach. Then she made her way up the road toward the train station, limping a bit from her aching ankle but not really too bad, all things considered.

Zee wanted to take the train back to Salem, but it was past midnight, and the trains had stopped running. She thought about sleeping on the beach. It was a warm night. It would have been safe. But she didn’t want to concern her father, who had enough to worry about these days. And she didn’t want to be anywhere in the vicinity of Manchester when they found the stolen boat.

So she ended up hitchhiking back to Salem. Not a smart thing to do, she thought as she walked to the Chevy Nova that had stopped about fifty feet ahead of her and was frantically backing up.

It was a woman who picked her up, probably mid-forties, slightly overweight, with long hair and blue eyes that glowed with the light of passing cars. At first the woman said she was only going as far as Beverly. But then she changed her mind and decided to take Zee all the way home, because if she didn’t she was afraid that Zee would start hitchhiking again and might be picked up by a murderer or a rapist.

As they rode down Route 127, the woman told Zee every horror story she had ever heard about hitchhiking and then made Zee give her word never to do it again. Zee promised, just to shut her up.

That’s what all the kids say, but they do it anyway, the woman said.

Zee wanted to tell her that she never hitched, that she wasn’t the victim type, and that she had only thumbed a ride tonight to cover a crime she’d committed—grand theft boato. But she didn’t know what other cautionary tales such a confession might unleash, so she kept her mouth shut.

As she was getting out of the car, Zee turned back to the woman. Instead of saying thank you, she said, in a voice that was straight out of a Saturday-morning cartoon show she’d watched when she was a little girl, Will you be my mommy?

She had meant it as a joke. But the woman broke down. She just started crying and wouldn’t stop.

Zee told the woman that she was kidding. She had her own mother, she said, even though it wasn’t true, not anymore.

Nothing she could say would stop the woman’s tears, and so finally she said what she should have said all along: Thank you for the ride.

Of course Zee hadn’t given the woman her real address—she didn’t want her getting any ideas, like maybe going into the house and having a word with Finch. She had planned to hide in the shadows until the woman drove away and then cut through the neighboring yards to get home. But in the end she just walked straight down the road. The woman was crying too hard to notice where Zee went or how she got there.

TEN YEARS LATER, AS ZEE was training to become a psychotherapist (having outgrown the middle name Trouble), she saw the woman again in one of the panic groups run by her mentor, Dr. Liz Mattei. The woman didn’t remember her, but Zee would have known her anywhere—those same translucent blue eyes, still teary. The woman had lost a child, a teenager and a runaway, she said. Her daughter had been diagnosed as bipolar, like Zee’s mother, Maureen, but had refused to keep taking lithium because it made her fat. She’d been last seen hitchhiking on Route 95, heading south, holding a hand-lettered sign that read NEW YORK.

It was the winter of 2001 and ten years since the woman had lost her daughter. The Twin Towers had recently come down. The panic group had grown in size, but its original members had become oddly more calm and helpful to each other, as if their free-floating anxiety had finally taken form, and the rest of the country had begun to feel the kind of terror they’d felt every day for years. For the first time Zee could remember, people in the group actually looked at each other. And when the woman talked about her daughter, as she had every week they’d been meeting, the group finally heard her.

The world can change, just like that! the woman said.

In the blink of an eye, someone answered.

Tissues were passed. And the group cried together for the first time, crying for the girl and for her inevitable loss of innocence and, of course, for their own.

BIPOLAR DISORDER HAD RECENTLY BECOME a catchall diagnosis. While it had once been believed that the condition occurred after the onset of puberty (as it had with this woman’s daughter), now children were being diagnosed as early as three years of age. Zee didn’t know what she thought about that. As with many things lately, she was of two minds about it. She hadn’t realized her joke until Mattei pointed it out, thinking it was intentional. No, Zee had told her. She was serious. Certainly it was a disease that needed treatment. Untreated bipolar disorder seldom led to anything but devastation. But medicating too early seemed wrong, something more in line with insurance and drug-company agendas than with the kind of help Zee had trained for years to provide.

The world-famous Dr. Mattei had long since abandoned her panic group, leaving them for Zee or one of the other psychologists to oversee. Mattei had moved on to her latest bestselling-book idea, which proposed the theory that the daughter will always live out the unfulfilled dreams of the mother. Even if she doesn’t know what those dreams are, even if those dreams have never been expressed, this will happen, according to Mattei, with alarming regularity. It wasn’t a new idea. But it was Mattei’s theory that this was more likely to happen if those dreams were never expressed, in much the same way that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Zee had often wondered about the woman with the translucent eyes who came back to the panic group only once after that evening. She wondered about her unfulfilled dreams, expressed or unexpressed, and she wondered if there was something that the daughter was acting out for her mother as she herself had stood on Route 95 and accepted a ride from a stranger heading south.

Zee was glad that the woman had left the group before Mattei had brought up her latest theory. The mother blamed herself enough for her daughter’s disappearance, wondering every day if she might have changed the course of events if only she’d given her daughter that one elusive thing she’d failed to provide—something tangible and even ordinary, perhaps, like that red dress in Filene’s window. Or the week away at Girl Scout camp that her daughter had begged for years ago.

No one understood the concept of if only better than Zee. She lived it every day, though she didn’t have to search to find the elusive thing. She thought she knew what her mother had wanted that day so many years ago, what might have helped lift her out of her depression. It was a book of Yeats’s poetry given to Maureen by Finch on their wedding day, and it was one of her mother’s treasures. Zee’s if only had worked in reverse. If only she hadn’t gotten her mother what she wanted that day, if only she hadn’t left her alone, Zee might have been able to save her.

PART 1:

May 2008

METHOD OF KEEPING A SHIP’S RECKONING…

A ship’s reckoning is that account, by which it can be known at any time where the ship is, and on what course or courses she must steer to gain her port.

NATHANIEL BOWDITCH: The American Practical Navigator

1

LILLY BRAEDON WAS LATE.

Mattei poked her head through Zee’s door. It’s so damned hot out there, she said. Oh, God, you’re not in session, are you?

I’m supposed to be, Zee said, looking at the clock. It was three-fifteen.

Mattei was re-dressing as she spoke, kicking off running shoes and pulling on her suit jacket. She walked five miles along the Charles River every afternoon, weather notwithstanding. When she was overbooked, which was a good deal of the time, she had been known to conduct her sessions while strolling along the river, calling it a walking meditation, telling patients it would be easier to open up if they didn’t feel her prying eyes on them. A week after she started conducting sessions that way, every shrink in Boston was out walking with patients.

God, not that agoraphobic again. It was another of Mattei’s jokes. Fifty percent of their patients had some degree of agoraphobia, a phenomenon that made attendance poor at best and had lately prompted Mattei to start charging time and a half for missed appointments, though Zee seldom required her patients to comply with this new rule.

Mattei was trying harder than usual to make her laugh today, meaning that Zee must be frowning again. Zee’s natural expression seemed to be the type of frown that inspired joke telling, often from total strangers, who always felt compelled to make her feel better somehow. Just this morning an older gentleman who had neglected to pick up his dog’s poop in Louisburg Square had walked over to her and ordered her to smile.

She stared at him.

Things can’t be all that bad, he said.

If he hadn’t been older than her father, Zee would have told him to get lost, that this was her natural expression, and that a man who didn’t pick up his dog’s excrement shouldn’t be allowed to roam free. But instead she managed a vague smirk.

So seriously, which patient? Mattei was waiting for an answer.

Lilly Braedon.

Mrs. Perfect, she said. Oh, no, I forgot, that’s you.

Not yet, Zee said a little too quickly.

Aha! Mattei said. Simple, simple. Case closed. That will be three hundred and fifty dollars.

Funny, Zee said as Mattei gathered up her running shoes and left the room.

IT WAS LILLY BRAEDON’S HUSBAND who had originally sought help at Dr. Mattei’s clinic. People came from all over the world to be treated by her. Harvard trained, with a stint at Johns Hopkins, Mattei was a psychiatrist who had great credentials. She’d written the definitive article on bipolar disorder with panic for the American Journal of Psychiatry. She had also worked closely with a team of genetic researchers who had uncovered a correlation between the disease and the eighteenth chromosome, a substantial and groundbreaking discovery.

But then Mattei’s career took a turn. She became fascinated by a more popular approach to psychiatry. The book she wrote during her tenth year in practice, a folksy self-help book entitled Safe at Home, lifted her to celebrity status. The book was inspired by a Red Sox second-stringer she had successfully treated for panic. Her practical solutions to his terror were based on biofeedback, desensitization, and sense memory.

The world is a terrifying place, Mattei explained first to a local newscaster and later to Oprah. And here is what you can do to stop being afraid. The book was filled with sensory tricks, tips almost too simple to inspire much credibility: carry a worry stone, smell lavender, breathe deeply. The companion CD featured guided meditations, some with music, some including nature sounds or poetry. It even quoted the old Irish prayer (the one that basically tells you not to worry about a damned thing because the worst thing that can happen is that you’ll go to hell, but that’s where all your friends will be anyway, so it’s pointless to fret). Though Mattei herself was a loose fusion of French, Italian, and Japanese ancestry, with not a bit of Irish blood, for some reason she loved everything about the Irish. It might have been a Boston thing. She loved James Joyce and even swore she had read and understood Finnegans Wake, which Zee seriously doubted. That Mattei loved Guinness and U2, Zee did not doubt. Zee and her fiancé, Michael, had spent last St. Paddy’s Day at a bar in Southie with Mattei and her partner, Rhonda, and Mattei had held her own, drinking with the best of Boston’s Irish. And just a month ago, Mattei had come back from one of her therapy walks sporting a pair of pink Armani sunglasses that looked very similar to a pair Zee had once seen Bono wear.

Mattei had done the usual book-tour circuit. But it was when she landed on Oprah that things went wild. There was a growing sense of panic in this country, Mattei explained to Oprah. It was everywhere. Since 9/11, certainly. And the economy? Terrifying. Do you know the number one fear of women? she had asked. Becoming homeless, she said. She went on to explain that the number one fear of the general population is public speaking. Many people say they’d rather die than get up in front of a group to give a presentation. After she reeled off such statistics, Mattei turned and spoke directly to the camera. What are you really afraid of? she asked America. It became a challenge that echoed through the popular culture. She closed the show with a paraphrased quote from Albert Einstein. The only real question you have to ask yourself is whether or not the universe is a friendly place, she explained, then went on to translate into terms anyone could understand. Once you’ve decided that, Mattei said, you can pretty much determine what your future will hold.

Her book hit the top of the New York Times Best Seller list and stayed there for sixty-two weeks. As Mattei’s fame grew, her patient list expanded exponentially, and she brought in interns to mentor, though her real work was still with bipolars.

Did you know that eighty percent of poets are bipolar? Mattei asked Zee one morning.

My mother wasn’t a poet. She wrote children’s books, Zee said.

Nevertheless… Mattei replied.

Nevertheless was probably the best thing Zee had ever learned from Mattei. It was a word, certainly, but much more than a word, it was a concept. Nevertheless was what you said when you were not going to budge, whether expressing an opinion or an intention. It was a statement, not a question, and the only word in the English language to which it was pointless to respond. If you wanted to end a conversation or an argument, nevertheless was your word.

Zee often thought that what had happened with her mother was another reason Mattei had hired her. Maureen’s case history might well be considered good material for a new book. But Mattei had never approached her about it. When Zee mentioned her theory one day, Mattei told her that she was mistaken, that she had actually hired Zee because of her red hair.

Theory and research were still Mattei’s passion, and though she had a thriving practice, she also had that elusive second book to write and her new mother-daughter theory to document. So most of Zee’s patients were Mattei’s overflow. Her sloppy seconds is what Michael called them, though he was clearly unaware of the perverse meaning of his slang. He’d meant it to be amusing rather than pornographic. The truth was, anything Mattei did was okay with Michael. They had been friends since med school. When Mattei suggested that Michael meet Zee, telling him she thought she’d found the perfect girl for him, he was only too happy to oblige.

Soon after that, Zee had found herself out on a blind date with Michael.

Upon Mattei’s recommendation, he had taken her to Radius. He had ordered for both of them, some Kurobuta pork and a two-hundred-dollar Barolo. By the time they finished the bottle, Zee found herself saying yes to a weekend with him on the Vineyard. They had moved in together shortly afterward. Not unlike the job Mattei had given her, the relationship just sort of happened.

What followed still seemed to Zee more like posthypnotic suggestion than real life. Not only had Michael easily agreed that Zee was the perfect girl for him, he’d never even seemed to question it. And exactly one year after their first date, a period of time most probably deemed respectable by Mattei, Michael had proposed.

Zee had been grateful when Mattei chose to hire her. She had just received her master’s and was working on her Ph.D. when Mattei invited her to join her practice, giving her some group sessions to moderate and mentoring her as she went. By the time she’d earned the title of doctor, Zee had ended up in a corner office with a view of the Charles and a patient list that would have taken her years to develop on her own.

The phrase case closed was one of Mattei’s biggest jokes. Though patients almost always got better under her care, they were never cured. There was no such thing as case closed. Not in modern American society anyway, Mattei insisted. Not in a country that planted the most fertile ground for both mania and the resultant depressive episodes, the country that had invented the corporate marketing machine that left people never feeling good enough unless they were overextending their credit, buying that next big fix. Not that Mattei minded the corporate marketing machine. That machine had made her rich. But there was definitely no such thing as case closed. Case closed was decidedly un-American.

WHEN LILLY BRAEDON CAME ALONG, Mattei quickly handed her off to Zee.

In the past year, Lilly had developed the most crippling case of panic disorder. She’d been to local doctors, who had ruled out all probable physical explanations: thyroid, anemia, lupus, et cetera. Then, after watching an episode of The View, something he swore he’d never done before, her husband, who in his own words loved Lilly more than life itself (a quote that resonated on a very problematic level with both Zee and Mattei), went to the Spirit of ’76 Bookstore in Marblehead to purchase Mattei’s book, only to find that they were sold out. He immediately ordered two copies, one for himself and another for his ailing wife.

But Lilly was too troubled to read. The only time she left the house in those days was in the late afternoon, when the shadows were longer and the bright summer light (another irrational fear) was dimmer. In the late afternoon, her husband said, Lilly often took long walks through the twisted streets of Marblehead and up through the graves of Old Burial Hill, to a precipice high above Marblehead Harbor, where she sometimes stayed until after sunset.

So technically she isn’t agoraphobic, Mattei said to the husband when she finished her initial patient analysis of Lilly. She does leave the house.

Only for her walks, her husband said. She says she does it to calm herself down.

Interesting, Mattei said.

But Zee could tell she didn’t mean it. The reason Zee was in attendance at Lilly’s session was that Mattei had already decided she was handing her off. Mattei wasn’t interested in Lilly Braedon.

But Zee was very interested. From the first time she met her new patient, Zee suspected that there was much more to the story than Lilly was telling.

Every Tuesday, Zee had her own therapy session with Mattei. Mostly they talked about her patients, or at least the ones who required meds, which was most of them. If patients with panic attacks weren’t on meds these days, you could be pretty sure there was a reason. Perhaps they were in some kind of twelve-step program, usually for alcohol or drugs, or else they had the kind of paranoia that kept them from taking any medication at all.

This morning Zee had gone through the usual suspects, as Mattei called her list of patients. This one had improved, that one was self-medicating with bourbon and sleeping pills. Another one had taken herself off all meds and was beginning to show signs of a manic episode. When they got to Lilly, Zee told Mattei she had nothing to report.

Unsatisfactory, Mattei said. Normally Mattei didn’t seem to care one bit about Lilly Braedon. But something Zee had said at their last meeting had piqued her interest for a change and prompted a question. When Zee reported that nothing had changed, Mattei wasn’t having any of it.

Does that mean that Lilly is in a normal phase? Mattei was referring to Lilly’s bipolar disorder, which had been their diagnosis. Bipolar disorder was something Zee understood only too well. It was what her mother had been diagnosed with years ago, except that in those days it had been called manic depression, which Zee had always thought a better description. In most cases the disorder was characterized by severe mood swings followed by periods of relative normalcy.

I wouldn’t say normal, Zee said.

Any more trouble with the Marblehead police?

Not lately, Zee said.

Well, that’s something.

AT 3:35, LILLY STILL HADN’T arrived. Zee walked to the window. Across Storrow Drive a homeless woman sat on one of the benches, but there was no one walking along the Charles River. It was too hot and humid for movement of any kind. Traffic was snarled, the drivers honking and agitated, trying to get onto roads heading north. The cardboard bridge, as Zee called the Craigie, looked like a bad fourth-grade art project. Years of soot had collected in the wrong areas for shading, and today’s haze made it look even flatter and more one-dimensional and fake than it had ever looked before.

AT 3:45, ZEE DIALED LILLY’S number. It was a 631 exchange, Marblehead. It used to be NE 1, Lilly had told her when she’d scribbled down her phone number for the records. NE for Neptune—you know, Neptune, the Roman god of the sea?

Zee thought back to her school days. Neptune—or Poseidon, his Greek equivalent, god of the sea and consort of Amphitrite, which had been Zee’s mother’s middle name. Though Maureen Doherty was a decidedly Irish name, Zee’s grandmother had given all three of her children the middle names of Greek gods and goddesses. Thus Zee’s mother was Maureen Amphitrite Doherty. Uncle Mickey’s middle name was Zeus, and Uncle Liam, who had died back in Ireland before Zee was born, was Antaeus, a clear foreshadowing of the mythmaking violence in his future. Zee remembered Maureen teasing Uncle Mickey about his middle name. Well, what mother doesn’t think her son is a god? Mickey had answered. Indeed, Zee thought.

Zee willed herself back to the present. Lately her mind had been wandering. Not just with Lilly, but with all of her patients. They seemed to tell the same stories over and over until her job became more like detective work than therapy. The key wasn’t in the stories themselves, at least not the ones they told and retold. Rather it was in the variations of their stories, the small details that changed with each telling. Those details were often the keys to whatever deeper issues lay hidden beneath the surface. What wasn’t the patient telling the truth about?

Everybody lies, was another of Mattei’s favorite expressions.

And so as the weeks passed, Zee listened to Lilly, to the variations in the stories she told over and over. But on the day that Lilly had mentioned Neptune, the story she told was one that Zee had never before heard.

Back in the day, Lilly was saying, before the phones in Marblehead had dials, way back when the operators used to ask ‘Number, please’ in a nasal four syllables, you would have to say ‘Neptune 1’ for the Marblehead exchange. Lilly was far too young ever to have remembered phones without dials and operators who connected you, but for some reason she seemed to find this bit of trivia very significant.

Does Neptune have a special meaning for you? Zee asked.

Lilly’s face contorted. I’ve always been afraid of Neptune, she said. Neptune is a vengeful god.

AT 5:20, ZEE DIALED HER wedding planner. I’m very sorry, but I’m going to have to cancel again, my five-o’clock is late, she said, relieved that she’d gotten the machine instead of the person—who, she had to admit, scared the hell out of her.

Zee felt a bit giddy, the way she’d felt as a kid when there was a snow day. Michael wouldn’t be home from Washington until the last shuttle. Having come up with the winter image, Zee decided to treat this unanticipated block of freedom as a snow day. Never mind that it was ninety-six degrees outside. The evening stretched ahead of her. She could do anything she wanted with it. Zee couldn’t remember the last time she’d had an open evening. Between her work schedule and the wedding plans, there’d been little time for anything else lately. She hadn’t even seen her father in the last few months, and she felt guilty about it, though she knew he understood.

The wedding date was not until the late fall, but it seemed as if there was at least one major wedding item a day on her to-do list. Zee hated the process. Tonight they were supposed to be sampling sushi at O Ya, and three kinds of sake. Not a bad evening, all things considered. But Michael wasn’t going to make it back in time, and she couldn’t deal with the wedding planner alone. The problem wasn’t the planner, who was arguably the best in Boston. The problem was that Zee couldn’t make a decision, couldn’t make herself choose anything from the myriad of options the wedding planner offered.

Her excuse had been a lie—well, more of a twist, really. Lilly was her three-o’clock, not her five, and whether she showed up or not would make little difference to tonight’s plans.

2

THOUGH IT WAS AN easy walk to their house on Beacon Hill, Zee hailed a cab. She wasn’t Mattei. She didn’t like to sweat. Out on the streets, exhaust and steam merged, creating a heat mirage that made the buildings across the river look as if they were beginning to melt. Both inbound and outbound traffic were completely knotted. A truck that had found its way onto Storrow Drive had knocked down one of the overhead crosswalks, and now there was no movement in any direction. Zee directed the taxi driver away from the traffic and up the hill.

It was chilly inside the cab. Mahler played on some weaker station, interrupted by intermittent static from the driver’s iPhone as it checked for e-mails. A king-size bottle of hand sanitizer had spilled onto the front seat and was spreading its alcohol scent, unnoticed by the driver. Zee’s mind moved to old spy movies, chloroform on a handkerchief, a hand over the mouth, and waking up in some dark place. She cracked the window and tried not to breathe, or anyway not to breathe too deeply.

She thought of Mattei’s sense exercises. Close off two of your senses and switch them. Smell and what? Hearing? No, touch was better. Zee ran her fingers along the door handle and the fake leather seat. Shut off the offending senses, choose the ones you can manage.

When they finally reached the house, Zee tipped the cabbie and walked around back, climbing the outside stairway to the deck, letting herself in through the kitchen door. The room was freezing, which fit well with her snow-day theme.

She had been happy for the heat a few minutes ago, and now she was happy for the cold. Zee seemed to need these extremes more and more lately, something she didn’t want to think about because it reminded her too much of her mother. She removed her shoes but didn’t take a pair of slippers from the bin that Michael provided for guests. Her hot feet left moist footprints on the cool, dark wood floor. With each step forward, the footprints she left behind slowly disappeared.

She was vaguely hungry. She opened the fridge. There were some leftovers from the party they’d had last weekend, some imported prosciutto and a ton of cheese. They’d invited several people over. Mostly people Michael worked with and some of Mattei’s friends, too, including Rhonda, whom Zee really liked. Mattei and Rhonda were planning a wedding, too, now that such things were legal in Massachusetts. Rhonda wanted to talk about all the details: her flowers (all peonies tied tightly in a nosegay, but with spiraling stems that remained visible), her music (jazz-pop fusion). Their wedding was to be in August, the day before Labor Day, which fell on September 1 this year. That Rhonda so clearly knew what she wanted didn’t bother Zee all that much. Rhonda had probably always known what she wanted, Zee thought, the way most girls know that kind of thing, straight or gay. Listening to Rhonda, Zee had wished for the first time that she were one of those girls who knew what she wanted. She’d been one of those girls once, but it seemed so long ago that she could barely remember how it felt.

July was fast approaching and, with it, the official beginning of summer parties. She thought back to last year’s Fourth of July. While Michael and Mattei had made the rounds, passing hors d’oeuvres and making small talk, Zee and Rhonda sat on the deck and watched the fireworks. The condo Zee shared with Michael had one of the best views in Boston, the perfect place to see the light show, though you couldn’t hear the Pops from here—you’d have to be on the esplanade for that. So Michael had turned on the radio, creating a sound track that was a second off from the visual, each beat later than the flash.

Michael had seemed so happy then, walking around refilling everyone’s glass with another good Barolo he’d found at auction. Last weekend he had served all French wines, some second-cru houses. Michael had a good collection, all reds.

Zee reached into the

Reviews for The Map of True Places

[carolee888 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the first time that I have read a book by Brunonia Barry. The Map of True Places started off with a great setting, the fascinating historic city of Salem. Also the author had the story of a father with Parkinson's disease that was turning into dementia. Both of those diseases were well researched and represented very carefully. Zee Finch, the daughter in this story, has a background of having a mother who had bipolar disorder and had committed suicide when Zee was young. The mother was wrapped up in a fantasy world that she tried to write in a book. Her mother was very out of touch with reality. Zee had stopped stealing boats and was working under a respected psychotherapist. OK that was a big jump! Zee took to stealing boats and leaving them in places not where they were originally. Is this a call for help, a call for an active parent to console and comfort her because she did not really have a mother, even when she was living? She was also engaged to be married. But one of the Zee's patients commits suicide and she also finds out that her father's mental health has deteriorated very much. Zee's world became too much for her. She lost her bearings. She returned to Salem to see her father but also begins to remember what her mother was like and she uncovers many family secrets. Some I liked reading about her father's lover, also how difficult it is to be a caretaker for someone with severe problems. But the element of fantasy and various other strings of the story started to confuse me at the end. So I loved most of the book but not all of it. I think the author attempted a little bit too much in one book but the main parts of the story still keep your interest.

[mhanover10 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Zee Finch loses her mother at a young age and ends up spending part of her childhood stealing boats— which has earned her the nickname Trouble. She's now a psychotherapist and is about to marry Michael. But the suicide of her patient Lilly throws Zee into emotional chaos and takes her to Salem after Lilly's funeral where her father, Finch, long ago diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, has been hiding how sick he really is. His longtime companion, Melville, has moved out, and it now falls to Zee to help her father.
Zee becomes overwhelmed by her new role as caregiver, and becomes uncertain about her future. She meets Hawks and they set out on a relationship that brings back memories of a story her mother wrote. There are several twists and turns in this story. You feel for Zee struggling to do the right thing for Finch and also for Melville who loves Finch dearly yet has been thrown out of the house by Finch. I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would.

[jamaicanmecrazy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Consider a family with secrets, throw in good intentions, fateful circumstances, mental & physical illness, and you have the nucleus of this story. That Zee, our heroine, has any mental health (after all she's witnessed & endured by the end of the book) is a miracle. I love the setting of Salem and the symbolism of maps & sextants; how difficult it is to navigate life & "find our way home." I've lived long enough to recognize that life is crazy & rarely turns out the way we expect it to, so the twists & turns of this story don't bother me. I have to admit that I guessed Melville's big secret about 1/2 way through the book. A nice rainy weekend read.

[christineellei · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Zee Finch goes from stealing boats as an adolescent to being a respected psychotherapist as an adult. After the death of a patient she decides to return home to Salem. Although she makes this move to try and deal with things in her life, it only seems to make matters worse as her fiancée calls off the engagement just as she is discovering that her father, ailing with Parkinson’s disease is more ill than she anticipated.

This book had many similarities to THE LACE READER, Barry’s previous book, but I found I enjoyed this one more. It was focused on relationships, caring and healing and that loved ones are often a more important part of our lives than we admit.

[marcejewels · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

From my blogI wanted something different to read, that wasn't y usual mystery genre, and I was able to pick a great one. This has been on my to read list for over 3 years. I highly recommend this one for book clubs, so much to discuss. Zee is a psychiatrist that lost her mom to suicide and now has crossed the lines with a client that reminds her of her moms death. Unfortunately the suicide has impacted her and she takes time off to spend with her father. Her father had Parkinson's but she didn't realize how far the disease had progressed and now she wants to be his caregiver also. Is Zee helping or is she running away from life? "It's not down on any map; true places never are."-- Herman Melville This was a great quote from the book. Finding the place that you need to be and should be at the perfect moment. Realising you are living life for others instead of yourself. I enjoyed this thought that was in the background of the story. It also made you think if daughters try to relive our mothers lives. Each section in the book started with a quote or motivation around the stars, celestial navigation, which became a beautiful part of the story, you enjoyed the journey of understanding the stars. There was lots going on in The Map of True Places but a beautiful transition from one part of Zee's life to another, it captures you and makes you just want to continue reading. When Zee gets to her dad, she realizes he has broken up with his life partner but she remains close as they have been an important part of her life growing up. Both her and her dad have ended relationships, another life change. The bonus for me is there was a mystery element for Zee, I was shocked by it but loved how it really showed you, you never know who you will love. What a beautiful story of life, the sadness and beautiful parts of life and how all things connect, making you realize the world is smaller then we think.

[tielwingsmama · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was truly phenomenal and a real page-turner. The twists and turns that occurred left me muttering only one word as I closed the book after the last page: "wow." I would definitely say I recommend this book to others and I cannot wait to read The Lace Reader, also by Brunonia Barry. I hope that it is even half as good as the Map of True Places.

[jmoncton_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I so much wanted to love this book, since her first novel, The Lace Reader, was one of my favorite novels. It's set in Salem, MA, so I saved it for our family vacation to Cape Cod. The book had an interesting plot, but I found the characters a bit flat. Good plot, though and still a fun 'beach read'.

[permaswooned · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I had difficulty coming up with a rating for this book. I thought the writing style was quite good, and really enjoyed the descriptions of Salem. I liked the historical/literary references to Hawthorne, Melville, the House of 7 Gables, etc. I thought many of the transitions were awkward, and I don't think she could decide what to think about reincarnation, coincidence, fate, etc. I would recommend it, with reservations, and I plan to read "The Lace Reader", her earlier book.

[ajbraithwaite_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

On the whole I enjoyed this story. I never felt fully immersed in it, the way I sometimes do with a book, but it was sufficiently interesting to keep my attention. I liked the coastal Massachusetts setting (I'd never actually realised that Salem was on the coast, for some reason...) and the interweaving of nautical navigational facts. Wasn't so keen on the insistence that human beings can't get through life without hours of therapy, though. Zee seemed to treat her own therapy sessions as though they were a regular, essential thing: like a car service or a dental check-up. And yet one of the messages of the book was that therapy doesn't always work and, indeed, the main character manages to work out her problems without the help of therapy in the end.

[hfineisen · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this book despite the often fantastical turns the story took. No spoilers. The relationships between the characters makes for a relatable read and the Hawthorne, Salem and Melville references enhance the setting. Perfect to throw in your beach or pool bag this summer.

[stillwaters12 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Zee, a psychiatrist whose mother committed suicide when Zee was twelve, loses a patient to suicide and goes home to Salem, Mass. to reground herself. However, her Father's progressing Parkinson's and then the onset of Alzheimer's just add to all the unsettled feelings she came home with. There are interesting relationships, believable processing and a believable ending. Some parts dragged on but most of it held my interest well.

[tjblue · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A story of fate and destiny and the fine line between real life and fairy tales.

[jenni01_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Once again the story was well told. Loved the twist and turns of the book.

[christinelstanley · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I think I enjoyed The Map of True Places more than The Lace reader. It's an easy fast read, with an inventive plot and likeable characters. Certainly page turning and entertaining

[njmom3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed the characters in the book. I enjoyed the writing style. However, the book got jumbled for me trying to deal with too many issues:Mental illnessRole of caregiverAbuseMarriageInfidelitySuicideDoctor-patient relationshipLoveIt was just too much for me. I would have enjoyed seeing fewer of the story lines but each one more developed.

[pdplish · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Another great book by Brunonia. I love that she weaves characters from the Lace Reader into this story. So easy to read and so many likabale characters, even if you saw the ending 1/2 way through. The setup was just too pat. But still it was a good love story, which I like to read.

[jo3jo_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is my first book by Brunonia Barry and I can guarantee you that I will not hesitate to open one of her novels in the future. Barry did a great job of delivering a novel that deals with some serious issues while also including a bit of a mysterious 'unknown' element. The mystical element was just the right amount for me as it didn't take over the novel or seem unbelievable.Zee is a young psychiatrist engaged to a wonderful man but doesn't seem to know the path that her life is taking. Zee is haunted by a childhood memory of seeing her mother die after convulsions from self-induced strychnine poisoning. Her mother was a very depressed woman and Zee takes special interest in her patient Lilly who seems to have similar traits to her mother. Zee's life is impacted once again when Lilly commits suicide.After Lilly's suicide Zee returns home to her father who has been suffering with Parkinson's disease. Upon her arrival she is surprised at the rapid decline of the disease. He has been fortunate for so long to have lived with minimal symptoms, but all of a sudden the disease seems to be taking its toll on him. This was such a touching part of the story for me as Zee puts her life on hold to care for her father who is frustrated with his medical condition. Her job becomes harder as his disease advances to the Altzheimer's stage. Because of the disease she finds that she needs to have some medical equipment installed in the home, and that is when Hawk is introduced in the story. Zee feels that she has seen Hawk somewhere before but cannot place it instantly. When she does finally recall how she knows this handsome man it brings back helpless feelings but that mysterious element that I mentioned earlier also surrounds his character.As Zee continues to care for her father she seems to accept the path that her life has taken. She realizes that she can make subtle changes for a more fulfilling outcome for both her and her loved ones. She also comes to accept that the suicides of both her mother and Lilly are not her fault. She learns that by charting the stars properly on the open sea that you can always find your way home. With the help of all who love Zee, this is exactly what she does.I really enjoyed this story and I think even more than I had expected. With themes of love, mystical elements, life choices, and both mental and terminal illnesses this is a great story and would also make a wonderful book club selection. This is one that I highly recommend.

[nyiper · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is similar to The Lace Reader in terms of the speed in which the action takes place. It's almost slow going as you get through all of the issues working toward a "something.". Well, of course there is a suicide early on!! I'm glad I kept going because the story has appealing characters and there really is an evolution of events, just a little exhausting before you seem to get anywhere.

[redladysbooks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Map of True Places is the second novel that I've read by Brunonia Barry. The first was The Lace Reader, which I read last year and enjoyed. Both of Barry's novels are set in Salem Massachusetts, the hometown of Brunonia Barry and rich with culture and history that she weaves into her novels. The Map of True Places, is a moving story of Zee, a young psychotherapist who finds connection and self discovery through the death of one of her patients. Zee is in a place in her life where she seems to have it all, a wonderful career with a great mentor Dr. Mattei, a fiance and family that love her. Things change drastically in Zee's life after the death of her patient and Zee must also confront the declining health of her adored father Finch. Zee's life goes off course and she must find a way to get herself back on track and find answers to many questions from her past. Barry has a way with storytelling that immerses you as a reader right into the story. I found the characters to be interesting and well written and the background of Salem and navigational themes held together the story. If you've read The Lace Reader, you will find some of the characters mentioned along the way. I enjoyed The Lace Reader and was surprised to find that I enjoyed The Map of True Places even more. This would make a great book to discuss with a book club as there is so much to discuss with themes related to secrets, identity, love, family, suicide, and much more.

[gkmiller4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In the end I really enjoyed this book. The characters and setting were great from the beginning. I had a bit of trouble when the author would backtrack a couple of chapters later. I did get used to it though. I really liked the story line and the ending was perfect. It took awhile to really become addicted to the book...just about halfway though I felt myself being pulled in.

[iwriteinbooks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Mystic sea ports.Hawthorne.Witches.Civil Liberties.Honestly, what is there not to love about Salem, MA?For Zee Finch, there’s more to add under the “not” column. A fading father, a memory of a mother gone, a harbor town that simply holds too many reminders of a less than stellar youth.So, it is with heavy baggage and much regret that she finds herself dislodged from far away Boston and set on a rip current back to her homeland. It is the ghost of family past coupled with a much more recent case gone horribly wrong that upends her beautiful engagement and career in the big city where her star is rising as an up and coming clinical psychotherapist.Parkinson’s has settled in with her father, resulting in the disintegration of his longtime relationship with dear friend and lover, Melville. Distraught and dragged down by the sudden need for her character change from distant daughter to constant caregiver, Zee’s entire world is upended and sent straight back to a fun-house version of her youth. She is forced to come face to face with the psychology and mythology of her past, the town’s past and the much more recent past of her troubled client.The silver lining to the dark storm cloud, is a mysterious man working on one of the ships in the port. Sunny and carefree in the way only old world sailors can be, Hawk is the picture of everything Zee has ever needed, capable of teaching her not only to read the stars but also to follow her heart. Of course, every storm cloud’s silver lining eventually sees another rainy day and not all parties are what they initially appear to be.Barry’s book came to me this past summer and it’s taken me entirely too long to read it. I’m kicking myself, now, for leaving it for so long. Of course, sometimes books have a way of waiting for the best time to be read. October, Salem or Atlanta, tends to be a great time for curling up with a good book. Of course, adding the mystery of an old sea yarn, never hurt a good Autumn-in-New-England read either.(Try turning on some Barefoot Truth or Great Big Sea while you’re reading and I promise you won’t be disappointed.)Growing up very close to Salem, hoping that every Neo-Crucible or Deliverance Dane anecdote will capture the town’s true awesomeness, I’m always disappointed.Until now.Barry gets it and here’s why: She tells stories like a New Englander. She writes about town drama and the colors of houses on the wharf, not, as southerners and midwesterners do, for poetic effect, but because these things have significance to ten generations looking back and it’s just a matter of fact. A north shore boatman retells a story because people have to know that “this happened” or because they should know “what went on here” as opposed to someone chatting about meandering minutia, whiling away of the hours in a hot southern sun, under parasols, drinking sweet tea.In True Places, Barry tells a sea story and a T-story, weaving past and present with a classic Yankee attention to “only the good stuff”. I’m about halfway into her first book, The Lace Reader, and can attest to the same being said through both works. This storyteller gets two very enthusiastic thumbs up from a fairly-hard to please northerner.

[mcelhra · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Map of True Places is the story of Zee Finch, a psychotherapist whose world is shaken up when one of her patients commits suicide. Zee goes home to Salem and discovers that her father Finch’s Parkinson’s disease is much more advanced than she’d thought. Zee’s mother killed herself when Zee was twelve and now Finch’s longtime companion has moved out. Zee extends her visit in Salem to care for her ailing father. While there, Zee must confront her unresolved issues about both her mother and her patient’s suicides.The plot of this book moved fairly slowly in the first two-thirds of the book and then turned into a roller coaster of twists and turns in the last third. For me, the pay-off in the last third was worth the wait – I didn’t see any of the twists coming. I haven’t read Brunonia Barry’s first book, The Lace Reader. From what I understand a few of the main characters in that book are minor characters in this book but it’s not a sequel. I don’t feel like I missed anything not having read the first book.

[tanya2009_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Zee Finch is a respected psychotherepist. One of her patients jumps off a bridge and Zee puts her career on hold and returns home to care for her father and to find answers to her own mother's suicide.

[pdebolt_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

For me, the most interesting parts of this books were the references to Hawthorne and Yeats. I also learned quite a bit about the devestating effects of Parkinson's disease. I didn't find the characters very engaging and I thought there were too many story lines. If you want to know more about Salem, MA and its maritime history, you will like this book. If you want a book that you will remember, look elsewhere.

[bibanon1-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher.Zee is working as a psychotherapist when one of her patients commits suicide. The tragedy brings up all kinds of issues for Zee and forces her to confront her past. In the middle of trying to work through the tragedy, Zee must return home to Salem to care for her father who is suffering from late stage Parkinson's. During her time in Salem, Zee tries to come to terms with the past and the suicide of her own mother when she was a young girl. As family secrets come to light and Zee learns to open her heart, another tragedy may be just around the corner.THE MAP OF TRUE PLACES is filled with references to celestial navigation and it is a very effective device. Coupling that with the setting in Salem, Massachusetts was particularly good. Zee is a deeply flawed person trying to make sense of her tragic past and how it shaped her present. This struggle against the backdrop of her caring for her ailing father is very moving. Barry does an excellent job revealing the flaws of all the characters while keeping them human and relatable. The celestial navigation methapor works so well as Zee tries to find her way back to herself. I found myself wanting to run out and learn about celestial navigation after reading this book.I really enjoyed MAP OF TRUE PLACES. I thought the characters were interesting and I loved Zee's story and the focus on how our past affects who we are and the choices that we make. The setting in Salem was perfect and very effective. The book has everything from buried family secrets to witches to Nathanial Hawthorne to pirates to the threat of violence. It covers a lot of ground. I have already decided to go back and read Barry's LACE READER since I enjoyed this one so much.BOTTOM LINE: Recommended. A great story of family secrets and letting go of the past with a terrific setting. You will want to go out sailing and navigate by the stars after reading this.

[bons_11 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"Only when one learns to determine his true location by looking at the stars will he be able to chart an accurate course to his final destination."I enjoy a book that can pull you in to the story in the first chapter. The Map Of True Places pulled me immediately. I am unsure what I thought this book would be about but it managed to take me along on it's wild and twisted journey. Barry included enough mystery to keep me interested through out.

[amachiski · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

For readers of The Lace Reader, Barry keeps to her original location, with appearances/mentions of characters from the first book. However, this is not a sequel; it is its own story. Barry has a mystical quality in her writing but it is not overpowering. I loved Zee and the rest of the characters. They were realistic and likeable. The story about her dad and his advancing disease was heart wrenching. Barry brought Salem to life with her vivid descriptions of the town. I also liked the theme of finding Zee at a crossroads in her life. The time with her father and family was just what she needed to find her way. It was all done in a touching and memorable story that had a bit of mystery, thriller and romance thrown in.

[jthierer_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This second novel by Barry has a lot in common with her first, "The Lace Reader." On the plus side, this means it features a compelling female protagonist and great descriptions of Salem, Mass. On the down side, that means it also includes a draggy middle section and names so improbably ridiculous that they detract from the story.

[kathydassaro · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Summary: Zee Finch has her life planned out. She is a successful psychologist and is engaged to the perfect catch. But her perfect life starts to unravel after the suicide of one of her patients. Zee travels to her father’s home in Salem to recoup after Lily’s death and finds that her father’s Parkinson’s disease has progressed much faster that he had let on. As she deals with these changes in her life, she starts to discover that maybe she needs a new plan.My Thoughts: I liked this book. It had some darkness to it, but I was interested from the beginning, and grew to like it the more I read. I thought that most of the characters were well written and interesting. The descriptions of Finch’s struggles with Parkinson’s was very well researched and described. Her knowledge of that disease was amazing.I enjoyed the several story lines, such as Lily’s suicide and Zee’s mother’s mysterious history. I loved Melville and perked right up when we followed his story. I also really liked Adam and he is the reason I was hooked for the second half of the book.My only problem with this book was the main character, Zee. I don’t think I liked her very much. Maybe I just wasn’t interested in her because it seemed like she wasn’t that interested in her life either. I know she was emotional about Lily and that she loved and cared for her father. But she was clearly depressed and therefore depressing. Some of this cleared up towards the middle of the book, and she became more likeable, but I guess my original opinion of her stuck.I like an ending that can wrap up the main ideas of a story AND give you a glimpse into the future of the characters….. good or bad. This story had that kind of ending, and lightened some of the darkness.

[ijustgetbored · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A Map of True Places sometimes sparkles with wit, sometimes takes on an elegaic tone. It is at once the fast-paced story of a young woman's life and the slow-paced story of a father's decline, showing the relativity of time. All things are in flux in Barry's novel: time, love, relationships, the very nature of the self and of one's desires.Zee, a young psychologist, finds herself suddenly estranged from her fiance and in the position of caretaker to her father, rapidly in decline with Parkinson's Disease. Her bipolar mother committed suicide many years ago under hazy circumstances, a circumstance that haunts Zee still and arguably influced her decision to go into psychotherapy. A patient of hers, also bipolar and in the midst of a destructive relationship, has recently committed suicide herself, plaguing Zee with doubt about her competency in her chosen profession. It is against the background of all this turmoil that she returns to her hometown to care for her rapidly declining father, whose lover of many years he has just kicked out for reasons unknown to Zee (and to the reader).The plot is densely woven and full of secrets, which come unraveled rapidly at the novel's conclusion: there is no slow revelation of facts. All is mystery up until the end. Until then, Barry sticks with psychological probing an examining characters, principally Zee, from all sides, examing each facet. If there is a flaw, it is that we see all characters only through the eyes of Zee, never getting a chance to delve into the psyches of other characters, except for brief glimpses into the minds of Hawk and Anne (the latter being a supporting character at best). Some characters-- and I'm thinking principally of Melville, the father, Finch's, lover-- would have been well-served to have moments of reflection to themselves.All in all, a strong novel with a sympathetic heroine. Some suspension of disbelief is required re: her time away from work and "real life;" it is hard to believe that someone can step away from the demands of the everyday for such a long period of introspection, surely a luxury few of us can afford. But the characterizations are strong, and the plotting draws you in. As densely psychological as it is, it's still suspenseful. You won't be able to put it down until the last page is read and the last secret is revealed, the final dilemna resolved-- as much resolution as this novel allows.