First of all, this is NOT a suspense novel. I say this because I thought it would be a psychological suspense thriller. There IS suspense, but this is a book about the life and emotional turmoil of one woman facing the lies she told as a child and trying to find the courage to do what she knows she must. Fine with me: I like both kinds of stories, just saying because I requested it from Netgalley thinking it was more thriller than character study.

As a young teenager, Wyn Davies was raped and stabbed in the woods near her home. Her attacker, another 13-year old, was sent to prison. Now, 20 years later, the Innocence Project is trying to get him a new trial, and Wyn knows she's going to have to face up to the fact that the whole story has never been told. The author slowly reveals the complete story, although it's not too hard to figure out long before that. Running from the threats she regularly receives advising her to "keep her part of the bargain" and not tell the truth, Wyn retreats to an isolated island off Maine where she uncovers another mystery: 30-year old rolls of film which tell the story of the house's previous owner, long-ago disappeared.

Although Wyn feels bound by a deal she made at the time of the rape, it's unclear why as an adult she wouldn't understand why that deal was not binding and that the police could protect her if she came forward. She's never told anyone: her husband, best friend, or parents. I did enjoy the description of life on an out-of-the-way island as Wyn renovates a long-deserted house sitting on a cliff over the Atlantic. And her child, Avery, is delightful. But the book doesn't work in its entirety, partially because Wyn's adult reactions to the rape seem too much like a plot device to provide a reason for everything else she does. The book also ends rather abruptly, just when the reader is expecting to enjoy a satisfying description of how things turn out rather than just assumptions.

When she was only 13 years old Wyn Davies took a walk in the woods and met a monster. Twenty years later, she’s living on one side of a duplex, her ex living on the other as the two share custody of their young daughter. Wyn makes a living selling her lovely, if uninspired paintings and life goes along until she hears that Robby Rousseau may be released from prison because new DNA evidence come to light. Unless Wyn can bring herself to talk about that long ago day, he will be free. In order to re-examine her priorities, Wyn agrees to house-sit for a friend. The house is old and long empty and on an isolated island in Maine. In the house, Wyn comes across pictures of the woman who lived there before her, a young mother and artist, much like Wyn herself. But this woman has a secret of her own, and as Wyn begins to dig into the woman’s past, she hopes to find the courage to deal with her own