13 1/2 - Hardcover

Nevada Barr

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1593155530 ISBN 13: 9781593155537

Publisher: Vanguard Press, 2009

Synopsis

With 13 ½, Nevada Barr, New York Times bestselling author of theaward-winning Anna Pigeon novels, has written a taut and terrifying psychologicalthriller. It carries the reader from the horrifying 1970s murder spree of a child—dubbed “Butcher Boy” by a shocked public—in Rochester, Minnesota, to Polly, theabused daughter of Mississippi “trailer trash,” to post-Katrina New Orleans.

In Jackson Square in the French Quarter a tarot card reader told Polly Deschamps she would be a success. Thirty years later, Polly is a respected professor of literature with good friends and her own home—a safe life for her and her two daughters.

Butcher Boy, released on his seventeenth birthday, shook the snow from his boots and headed south.

New Orleans, a Mecca for runaways then and now, offers sanctuary but never forgiveness.

When Polly falls in love with Marshall Marchand, a restoration architect who is helping to rebuild her adopted city, shadows of the past rise out of the poisoned ground of New Orleans as thick and deadly as the toxic waters of the flood.

Like history, some crimes are doomed to repeat themselves. Evil stays the same, only the victims’ names change. As two broken pasts collide in an uncertain present, Polly is determined that her children’s names will never be on that list.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

In 1971, the state of Minnesota was rocked when coverage of the "Butcher Boy", who brutally murdered his own family, swept across newspapers and television screens nationwide. Now, in present-day New Orleans, Polly Deschamps finds herself at yet another lonely crossroads in her life. No stranger to tragedy, Polly was a runaway at the age of fifteen, escaping a nightmarish Mississippi childhood.

But then Polly encounters architect Marshall Marchand and is immediately smitten. Marshall is handsome, charming and intelligent, and before long, even Polly's daughters from her previous marriage love him. Inevitably, they marry. As Polly begins to settle into her new life, she becomes uneasy about her husband's increasing dark moods. And then there's the ominous prediction by a New Orleans tarot card reader that says Polly will murder her husband. Could Marshall and his eccentric brother, Danny, be keeping a dark secret from Polly, one that will shatter the happiness she so desperately wants?

About the Author:

Nevada Barr is an award-winning novelist and New York Times bestselling author. She has a growing number of Anna Pigeon mysteries to her credit as well as numerous other books, short stories, and articles. She currently resides in New Orleans with her husband, four magical cats, and two adorable dogs.

About this edition

• Publisher: Vanguard Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1593155530
• ISBN 13: 9781593155537
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 311