J. K. Ellem

Following the death of her husband Michael, Becca Cartwright entered a period of depression, especially after reading the letters written by Michael. She finally decided to move to a quiet secluded area. She chose Ravenwood, Maryland, and bought a home in a very small, gated community.
There are five homes on Mill Point Road. The women got together several times each week to talk about the news in the area. Translation: gossip, primary sexual. On the whole, they were very open about the relationships. For example, Maggie Vickerman, the oldest, like to brag about her sexual exploits with much younger men. She and her husband Hank had a son, Adam, who had left suddenly and sent online pictures of the sites he had seen traveling in Europe.
Sabine Miller was very flashy it had a lot of connections. She took Becca under her wing to buy clothes and furniture and was able to get many discounts. She. pushed to get people, especially her neighbors, to invest in her husband’s investment firm. Some reported excellent returns.
Zoe Collins wore long sleeves to cover bruises. Often she preferred standing to sitting down with the rest of the women. She “had become very skilled over the years of hiding which she didn’t want others to see. Most women wouldn’t tolerate it. Couldn’t tolerated it. Couldn’t understand. They had no idea what real love was....Real love involved forgiveness.”
Paige Hamill’s parents were wealthy. Her father was a US Senator. Paige was desperate to get pregnant. Her husband, Scott, was a writer, though not very successful. Sabine wanted them to invest money and decided that the way to get Paige to agree would be by going through Scott.
All five houses on Mill Point Road backed onto a steep ridge leading down to a road. The yards were fenced, with the gate at the bottom of the path from Becca’s house. The guardhouse keeper, Mac, warned her to not go down the Ridge because it was very steep, had a lot of undergrowth, and was dangerous.
Not long after she moved there, Becca decided to check out the ridge. It was a difficult hike, and on her way back up she found a gold bracelet with a name “Amber” and an unusual symbol. No one named Amber lived on the street.
Ravenwood had become the site for a mass murderer, dubbed the Eden Killer, because all his victims were young men named “Adam.” While no one knew who the killer was, the killer seemed to know the people on Mill Point Road.
Working to find him were Detective Marvin Richards who was a veteran New York police officer and Haley Perez, brash young police officer Ravenswood native.
While all the families on Mill Point Road seemed very open, they all had secrets. Author J.K. Ellem does a good job revealing them and has some very unexpected twists. The book is well-written, the characters are consistent and largely believable. My main complaint is that I was able to anticipate much, but not all, of what followed.… (altro)