Sainted in Error, by Glenda Winders, is an imaginative piece of psychological women's fiction that takes the reader into the psyche of a friendship and it's painful disintegration. The writing drew me in and I had a hard time putting the book down so I could get some things done. I also found the main characters to be interesting well fleshed out.
Maggie Patterson is readying herself for a incredibly personal & painful murder trial and she finds herself dwelling on a lifetime of memories that brought her to this point. She needs to try and reassemble the pieces of her past to try and make sense of the senseless.
Maggie's been best friends with Cynthia since they were college freshmen. As the friendship continues, Cynthia’s toxic jealousy and mental health decline causes the friendship to fall apart. As their lives unfold, Cynthia’s paranoia and rage destroys almost all her relationships. Ultimately culminating into a horror that Maggie never even imagined.

We know these girls. One we like. She's nice, a hard worker and considerate of others. The other one is pretty on the outside but she is mean spirited with an agenda of her own design. Most of us would walk away from the girl that is repulsive. Yet, Maggie enjoys her new college roommate, Cynthia. They are opposites and they seem to balance each other.

The author sets the stage with the first sentence. "What do you wear when you testify against your best friend as she goes on trial for murder?" Immediately, the reader can guess what will happen with this storyline as Maggie shuffles through her closet looking for the ideal outfit. It's the characters that make this book appealing like reading gossip about your neighbors.

Maggie's family works on a farm and she's on a tight budget when she enters her college dorm to meet Cynthia who has established herself with the bed by the window. Maggie is a liberal that joins protests and other hippies. Cynthia was raised as a conservative and says, "Rich people are all Republicans...We vote with our pocketbooks."

Opposites attract and they get along until one becomes successful after graduating and the other one doesn't. Most friendships would break off at some point but Maggie has a big heart and remembers the friendship that brought them once together. Sadly, Cynthia had a mother with bipolar traits and committed suicide. Now she needs medical help as well with meds and a psychiatrist - but refuses.

This book is beautifully written. I paused when reading, "You never know which of the hundreds of little choices you make every day will be one that ends up shaping your life -- whether for better or worse." It examines life stages and relationships on all levels. It gives one a deeper understanding of someone that needs major therapy. At the end, there are a list of helpful questions for book clubs to review.

My thanks to Glenda Winders, Mascot Books and NetGalley for allowing me to read this advanced copy with an expected release date of February 1, 2022.

“What do you wear when you testify against your best friend as she goes on trial for murder? It’s ridiculous that I’m so anxious over such a minuscule and trivial part of this whole nightmare.”

In Winders’ novel, Maggie Patterson’s longtime college friend, Cynthia Morgan, suffers an undiagnosed mental disorder for years, culminating in violence and murder.

“Sainted in Error” is a gripping tale of the unrelenting anguish that psychological afflictions cause.

Synopsis

As Maggie Patterson runs her hand over the clothes in her closet and muses about the prosaic details of preparing for a shockingly personal murder trial, she is catapulted into the memories that led her to this moment. Piece by piece, she assembles the fragments of her past to make sense of a violent crime, the echoes of which ripple through her recollections.

Maggie and Cynthia meet as college freshmen and are seemingly destined to be best friends for life. As the years pass, however, Maggie’s marriage and career lift her to success and wealth while Cynthia’s jealousy and untreated mental illness cause their relationship to disintegrate. As the stories of the two women’s lives unfold, Cynthia’s paranoia and anger sour every relationship she has and turn even the people who have loved her most against her, ultimately bubbling over into an event that Maggie never sees coming.

Not a murder mystery in the usual sense, and spanning time and space, “Sainted in Error” delves into the tenacity of friendship and the damage that the stigma still attached to mental illness can do.

A huge thank you to @NetGalley and @MascotBooks or an ARC of “Sainted in Error” by Glenda Winders.

Please note that this novel’s publication date is 1 February 2022.

#SaintedinError #GlendaWinders #NetGalley #LiteraryFiction #FamilyLifeFiction #FriendshipFiction #PsychologicalFiction

Thank you NetGalley and Mascot Books, Subplot for the eARC.
Maggie is on her way to a very personal murder trial - that of her previous best friend, Cynthia. As she's looking for an outfit to wear, she reminisces about their friendship. A friendship that started out in college and was wonderful to begin with, but eroded over time as Cynthia's behavior became more and more erratic. She became a poisonous influence to the point that Maggie basically terminated their friendship. Cynthia's marriage, her relationship with her two daughters and any other people in her life is fraught with her nastiness, jealousy and embarrassing outbursts. She's seeing a 'therapist', refuses to see a psychiatrist or go on medication and basically ruins her life, blaming everyone around her.
It's a really good book, not a murder mystery as such, more the story of a life unravelling because of an undiagnosed mental illness. It's hard to like Cynthia, to be as patient with her as Maggie was, but it's an intense, grown-up novel that I thoroughly enjoyed. Highly recommended!

This book revolves around the loss of friendship and the grief it brings and how it affects. Also we have this topic expressed that what an undiagnosed mental disorder create havoc.
We have Maggie who's looking for a dress to wear to got to a murder trial and the accused is her ex- friend Cynthia, and while this she ruminates on their estranged friendship and the loss it brought to them. Cynthia is afflicted with a mental disorder which due to being undiagnosed creates rift in the lives of her near ones.
The story is build up well and I enjoyed reading it.

A beautifully written breathtakingly novel,the author wrote a poignant story concerning love,loss ,mental illness and the mind field.that brings. Especially when someone you once cared about,commits the despicable act of.murder. I have not heard of this author before,but I will be looking out for more of her work.