Playing Dead: A Novel

Front Cover
Random House Publishing Group, May 29, 2012 - Fiction - 352 pages

“A compelling family mystery that kept me turning the pages. Highly recommended.”—Margaret Maron, New York Times bestselling author of Three Day Town
 
“Dear Tommie: Have you ever wondered about who you are?”
 
The letter that turns Tommie McCloud’s world upside down arrives from a stranger only days after her father’s death. The woman who wrote it claims that Tommie is her daughter—and that she was kidnapped as a baby thirty-one years ago.
 
Tommie wants to believe it’s all a hoax, but suddenly a girl who grew up on a Texas ranch finds herself  linked to a horrific past: the slaughter of a family in Chicago, the murder of an Oklahoma beauty queen, and the kidnapping of a little girl named Adriana. Tommie races along a twisting, nightmarish path while an unseen stalker is determined to keep old secrets locked inside the dementia-battered brain of the woman who Tommie always thought was her real mother. With everything she has ever believed in question, and no one she can trust, Tommie must discover the truth about the girl who vanished—and the very real threats that still remain. 
 
“[Julia Heaberlin’s] voice is pitch perfect, and her story of one woman’s fierce struggle to reconcile her past with her present is gripping and powerful. An outstanding debut.”—Carla Buckley, author of Invisible

 

Selected pages

Contents

Section 1
3
Section 2
11
Section 3
17
Section 4
25
Section 5
32
Section 6
40
Section 7
51
Section 8
61
Section 20
189
Section 21
200
Section 22
209
Section 23
219
Section 24
230
Section 25
244
Section 26
252
Section 27
266

Section 9
73
Section 10
86
Section 11
95
Section 12
106
Section 13
121
Section 14
131
Section 15
142
Section 16
149
Section 17
157
Section 18
170
Section 19
181
Section 28
276
Section 29
285
Section 30
293
Section 31
300
Section 32
308
Section 33
317
Section 34
325
Section 35
330
Section 36
337
Copyright

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About the author (2012)

Julia Heaberlin is the author of Black-Eyed Susans, Lie Still, and Playing Dead. She is an award-winning journalist who has worked at the Fort-Worth Star Telegram, The Detroit News, and The Dallas Morning News. She grew up in Texas and lives with her family near Dallas/Fort Worth, where she is at work on her next novel of psychological suspense.

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