The love surrounding a beloved neighborhood institution shines through in Swanson’s latest, in which a 1979 Denver record-store owning mom is shot dead in a robbery, her forlorn young daughter, Suzanne, left behind. But Suzanne’s hapless dad has the perfect solution. It’s all figured out! His old girlfriend, Peggy, is moving in. Peggy seems much too eager for this arrangement. She’s also far more motherly toward Suzanne’s devastated little brother, Chris, than Suzanne would like, while nasty toward Suzanne herself. But Suzanne’s mom used to call her daughter “my little seer,” and indeed, after some time, she gets visits from her mom, hearing again her “warm, round voice–like the sun speaking.” When we fast forward in alternating chapters to 2004, adult Suzanne is moving back to Denver from California with her husband, disgruntled teenage daughter, and nine-year-old son. Trying to settle in, she opens a new business in her mom’s old shop, but sinister things start cropping up–a girl is missing in town, and elements of the case are strangely familiar. Then there’s the rat left on the family’s doorstep. What it all means leads this protagonist on a frightening and gripping path to the truth about what happened in 1979, a tale that is enriched with details on the music of the time and the feeling of enduring love. For fans of T. Jefferson Parker’s A Thousand Steps, which is steeped in the same emotions, and all who love a solid mystery

In 1979, 14-year-old Suzanne Parry's mother, Alex, was murdered in their modest family shop, Zoe's Records. Since that fateful day, Suzanne's childhood gift of clairvoyance has allowed her to sense her mother's spirit—an eerie presence she calls Mom-not-Mom—warning her about Peggy, her father's old high school flame, who worms her way into their lives and starts playing mom to Suzanne's six-year-old brother, Chris. Fast forwarding to 2004, financial woes compel Suzanne’s family to return to their hometown in Denver, allowing the past a chance to rear its ugly head, when a recent kidnapping event that occurred before their move reopens old wounds that never truly healed. "For me, Denver meant the past would encroach," Suzanne says. Still, she reluctantly approves with an agenda in mind: uncovering her dad's history may provide answers to her son Austin's undiagnosed cognitive and behavioral lapses. Suzanne's story, both past and present, is an unflinching portrayal of a family gone haywire, when, in the face of tragedy, communication lacks and secrecy builds. Swanson (author of The Glass Forest) cranks up the tension between well-drawn leads—Suzanne’s rebellious teenage daughter, Caitlin, seethes with jealousy over the attention Austin receives, their home becomes a target of a suspicious intruder, and her husband is becoming cozy with his coworker... [T]he clever use of alternating timelines keeps readers on their toes as they follow the young Suzanne sneaking to decode Mom-not-Mom's cryptic warnings juxtaposed with the adult Suzanne, who might be bordering on insanity. Alex's on-point words, "what we feared most was what we most needed to confront," overarch the central theme in this satisfying blend of supernatural and coming-of-age mystery—that children require a parent’s unequivocal attention, for childhood shapes the kind of person we eventually become.

Always fascinated with Denver’s history and haunted legacy, local author Cynthia Swanson releases a brand-new novel set in our city but toggling two timelines. Jumping between the ghosts of her 1979 childhood and the realities of her 2004 life, the protagonist uncovers chilling truths about her family’s hidden past that might just determine their future. This psychological suspense novel is masterfully crafted, distinctly Denver, and a must-read for anyone who loves a gripping, edge-of-your-seat mystery.