The Golden Hour by T. Greenwood – 384 pages
ARC from Kensington
Book Blurb:
On a spring afternoon long ago, thirteen-year-old Wyn Davies took a shortcut through the woods in her New Hampshire hometown and became a cautionary tale. Now, twenty years later, she lives in New York, on the opposite side of a duplex from her ex, with their four-year-old daughter shuttling between them. Wyn makes her living painting commissioned canvases of birch trees to match her clients’ furnishings. But the nagging sense that she has sold her artistic soul is soon eclipsed by a greater fear. Robby Rousseau, who has spent the past two decades in prison for a terrible crime against her, may be released based on new DNA evidence unless Wyn breaks her silence about that afternoon.
My Review: 4 stars
The Golden Hour is a story about moving forward after a long lost lie creeps back to the future in a way that’s least expected. It’s another of Greenwood’s well-structured stories in which the characters are so incredibly relatable that they easily become genuine to you.
Fearful for the safety of her own well being as well as her child’s, Wyn, the protagonist escapes to her friend’s newly purchased home. Undoubtedly, it’s also an escape from reality as she is petrified of having to testify again and expose her lie from years ago. The plot mounts as Wyn finds a stash of photos hidden in this Maine house that become someone else’s mystery that she tries to solve. The dueling storylines both kept my interest and worked well together.
Art became a triple edged sword (if there is such a thing) for Wyn, as it was her salvation, her enemy when she felt she was selling out and an unspoken competition with her best friend.
The author explores art in many forms, friendship, competition, rape, lies, motherhood, marriage, and the power of becoming whole again in this novel. There is quite a lot of symbolism in the mentions of blank canvas and in the words epitaph and prophecy peppered throughout the book. Fans of T. Greenwood won’t be disappointed with her newest book.
Quotes I liked:
A lie, in collusion with time, can overpower the truth. A good lie has the power to subsume reality. A good lie can become the truth.”
-“Marriage. So much of it is about tolerance. Over time, you stop complaining and simply put up with things because it’s easier than the alternative.”
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