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Long Black Veil

A Novel

ebook
2 of 2 copies available
2 of 2 copies available
Publishers Weekly’s Best Books of 2017
For fans of Donna Tartt and Megan Abbott, a novel about a woman whose family and identity are threatened by the secrets of her past, from the New York Times bestselling author of She's Not There

On a warm August night in 1980, six college students sneak into the dilapidated ruins of Philadelphia’s Eastern State Penitentiary, looking for a thrill. With a pianist, a painter and a teacher among them, the friends are full of potential. But it’s not long before they realize they are locked in—and not alone. When the friends get lost and separated, the terrifying night ends in tragedy, and the unexpected, far-reaching consequences reverberate through the survivors’ lives. As they go their separate ways, trying to move on, it becomes clear that their dark night in the prison has changed them all. Decades later, new evidence is found, and the dogged detective investigating the cold case charges one of them—celebrity chef Jon Casey— with murder. Only Casey’s old friend Judith Carrigan can testify to his innocence.
But Judith is protecting long-held secrets of her own – secrets that, if brought to light, could destroy her career as a travel writer and tear her away from her fireman husband and teenage son. If she chooses to help Casey, she risks losing the life she has fought to build and the woman she has struggled to become. In any life that contains a “before” and an “after,” how is it possible to live one life, not two?
Weaving deftly between 1980 and the present day, and told in an unforgettable voice, Long Black Veil is an intensely atmospheric thriller that explores the meaning of identity, loyalty, and love. Readers will hail this as Boylan’s triumphant return to fiction.
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from February 6, 2017
      At the start of this madcap thriller full of hidden identities from Boylan (She’s Not There), a night of goofy postcollege mischief goes horribly amiss in Philadelphia’s shut-down Eastern State Penitentiary in 1980. When human remains surface at the site decades after the party, one of the six revelers, Jon Casey—now a top chef in Philadelphia—is charged, although the gumshoe assigned to review the cold case files senses more than a possible crime of passion has been covered up. In the interim, it appears that another party participant, a friend of Casey’s, may have faked his own death. In rural Maine, freelance writer Judith Carrigan, who knew both the victim and Casey back when, knows the latter to be innocent. But to help Casey would put her family and happiness on the line. Boylan’s bluff, witty prose (“my actual innocence got on his nerves”) charms away any impatience with more far-fetched aspects of her loopy plot. And embedded in the whodunit is a heartwarming midlife love story, in which hard-won candor, tenacity, and a generous sense of humor are the most saving of graces. Agent: Kris Dahl, ICM.

    • Library Journal

      February 1, 2017

      Best-selling memoirist (She's Not There) and novelist (Getting In) Boylan's latest work begins in 1980. A party of eight adventurous people, six of them friends united by a wedding the evening before, decide to explore Philadelphia's abandoned Eastern State Penitentiary. The visit starts off as a lark, but by the time the evening ends one person is missing and a mystery has been born--one that will follow the surviving friends through the next 35 years. The story line explores both the fallout from the crime and the impact on one survivor specifically. Judith Carrigan may hold the key to unraveling the puzzle and saving her friend Jon Casey, who has been accused of murder--but the price for her help could be the new life she has created for herself. VERDICT Boylan's twisty and entertaining thriller takes a hard look at questions of identity, love, and trust. Recommended for fans of Megan Abbott and Donna Tartt. [See Prepub Alert, 10/31/16.]--Amy Hoseth, Colorado State Univ. Lib., Fort Collins

      Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Library Journal

      November 15, 2016

      The inaugural Anna Quindlen Writer in Residence at Barnard College and author of the 100,000-copy best-selling She's Not There, Boylan chronicles Judith Carrigan's identity crisis when the body of a college friend is discovered 20 years after she disappeared. At the time, Judith was such a different person that testifying about the murder will be difficult. With a 60,000-copy first printing.

      Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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  • English

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