Deceit: A Novel

Sometimes the truth hides where no one expects to find it. Joanne Weeks knows Baxter Jackson killed Linda---his second wife and Joanne's best friend---six years ago. But Baxter, a church elder and beloved member of the town, walks the streets a free man. The police tell Joanne to leave well enough alone, but she is determined to bring him down. Using her skills as a professional skip tracer, she sets out to locate the only person who may be able to put Baxter behind bars. Melissa Harkoff was a traumatized sixteen-year-old foster child in the Jackson household when Linda disappeared. At the time Melissa claimed to know nothing of Linda's whereabouts---but was she lying? In relentless style, Deceit careens between Joanne's pursuit of the truth--- which puts her own life in danger---and the events of six years' past, when Melissa came to live with the Jacksons. What really happened in that household? Beneath the veneer of perfection lies a story of shakeable faith, choices, and the lure of deceit.