No Place Like Home: A NovelIn a riveting and unputdownable thriller from the Queen of Suspense, a young woman is ensnared into returning to a place she had wanted to leave behind forever—her childhood home. At the age of ten, Liza Barton shot her mother, trying desperately to protect her from her estranged stepfather, Ted Cartwright. Despite his claim that the shooting was a deliberate act, the Juvenile Court ruled the death an accident. Many people, however, agreed with Cartwright, and the tabloids compared the child to the infamous murderess Lizzie Borden, pointing even to the similarity of their names. To erase her past, her adoptive parents change her name to Celia. At age twenty-eight, a successful interior designer in Manhattan, she marries a childless sixty-year-old widower, Laurence Foster, and they have a son. Before their marriage, she reveals to him her true identity. Two years later, on his deathbed, he makes her swear never to tell anyone so that their son, Jack, will not carry the stigma of her past. Two years later, Celia is happily remarried. Her peace of mind is shattered when her new husband surprises her with a gift—the house where she killed her mother. And it soon becomes clear that there is someone in the community knows Celia. More and more, there are signs that someone in the community knows Celia’s true identity. When the real estate agent who sold them the house is brutally murdered and Celia is the first on the crime scene, she becomes a suspect. As she fights to prove her innocence, she has no idea that she and her son, Jack, are now the targets of a killer. |
Contents
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Epilogue | 366 |
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Common terms and phrases
Alex answer asked Audrey Barton began believe body Celia Nolan Charley close Clyde course death decided desk Detective didn’t don’t door Earley eyes face fact father feel felt front Georgette Grove give going guess hand happened heard Henry Holland Road horse husband Jack Jeff keep kids killed kind knew later living Liza Liza Barton Lizzie looked MacKingsley Marcella mean meet mind minutes morning mother moved never night o’clock paint Paley past picked picture police pulled question reason remember riding Robin shot smile someone started story sure talk Ted Cartwright tell thing thought told took town trying turned vandalism voice waiting walked Walsh wife Willet woman wonder yesterday Zach
Popular passages
Page iii - I'll Be Seeing You All Around the Town Loves Music, Loves to Dance The Anastasia Syndrome and Other Stories While My Pretty One Sleeps Weep No More, My Lady Stillwatch A Cry in the Night The Cradle Will Fall A Stranger Is Watching Where Are the Children? BY MARY HIGGINS CLARK AND CAROL HIGGINS CLARK
Page xi - Lizzie Borden took an ax And gave her mother forty whacks; When she saw what she had done She gave her father forty-one!
Page vii - part of our team for the last dozen years. I am grateful to both of them for everything they do to guide this writer along the way. My literary agents, Eugene Winick and Sam Pinkus, are true friends, good critics, and great supporters. I love them. Dr. Ina Winick
Page 6 - The gun going off. . . Lizzie Borden had an axe . . . "Are you all right, Mrs. Nolan?" Henry Paley is asking me. "Yes, of course," I manage, with some effort. My tongue feels too heavy to mouth the words. My mind is racing with the thought that I should not have let Larry, my
Page 13 - house, Celia Nolan still considers herself lucky," Georgette snapped nervously. "Otherwise, we might have a real problem on our hands." Robin knew exactly what she meant. Small, slender, and very pretty, with a heart-shaped face and a penchant for frilly clothes, the initial impression she gave was that of the air-headed
Page 12 - and he also had asked that champagne and a birthday cake and glasses and plates and silverware and birthday napkins be waiting inside. When Georgette pointed out that there was absolutely no furniture in the house, and offered to bring over a folding table and chairs, Nolan had been
Page 2 - Liza could see the tears streaming down her mother's cheeks. "Sure," he yelled. With a violent thrust, he shoved Liza's mother at her. When she crashed into Liza, the gun went off. Then Liza heard a funny little gurgle and Mom crumpled to the floor. Liza looked down at her mother, then up at Ted. He began to lunge
Page 16 - Ceil, it's what we were planning to do. We're just doing it a little faster. It makes sense for Jack to start pre-K in Mendham. We've been cramped for these six months in your apartment, and you didn't want to move downtown to mine.
Page 17 - He's worked hard to accomplish all he has. Though a distant cousin of my late husband, who himself had come from wealth, Alex was decidedly a "poor relation." I knew how proud he was to be able to buy this new house.