Tangled Threads

Perfect for book clubs, this is the story of two strong women at odds with each other. Delia O’Toole is determined to escape the nursing home that has become her prison. So when her lifelong enemy, Ruthann, begs her to return to their hometown in North Carolina, Delia realizes it’s time to confront Ruthann and the events that changed their lives forever. It’s time to deal with “the accident.” Going home means remembering those long-ago days when Delia and Ruthann were poverty-stricken girls working in the cotton mill. It also means remembering the impulsive decision Delia made as a teen, a decision that led to tragedy. Delia escaped the mill, while Ruthann, as brilliant as Delia, remained behind. As time went on, their lives intertwined in unexpected, sometimes painful, even fatal, ways. When Delia finally returns to her childhood home, she is stunned by what Ruthann reveals and faces a wrenching decision. And both women must decide whether they can forgive betrayal and the life-altering accident that almost destroyed them. Tangled Threads,” vetted for accuracy by an expert on early mill villages, moves between the 1890s and the 1950s, bringing those times richly to life. Along the way, it explores the limits of forgiveness and the difficult choices that await us at the end of life. Book club discussion questions provided. Also by Sandy Hill, a sequel, "Kate & Delia;" "Bonds of Courage," "The Blue Car," "The Friends of Flat Flora," and mysteries "Deadline for Death," "An Ice Day to Die, "A Dying Wind, and "Shadow Dance."

Sandy Hill, a former newspaper editor, lives in North Carolina with her husband, also a writer. She spent two years researching cotton mill villages for "Tangled Threads." Her interests include sign language, Spanish, ice skating, reading and lifting weights.