SECRETS SHE LEFT BEHIND

SECRETS SHE LEFT BEHIND by Diane Chamberlain

From the back of the book:

One afternoon, single mother Sara Weston says that she's going to the store - and never returns.  In her absence, she leaves her teenaged son alone with his damaged past and a legacy of secrets.

Keith Weston nearly lost his life in an act of arson.  He survived - but with devastating physical and emotional scars.  Without his mother, he has no one to help him heal, no money, nothing to live for but the medications that numb his pain.  Isolated and angry, his hatred has one tight focus:  his half-sister, Maggie Lockwood.

Nineteen-year-old Maggie spent a year in prison for the acts that led up to the fire.  Now she's back home.  But her release cannot free her from the burden of guilt she carries.  She grew up with Keith, played with him as a child...and recently learned they share the same father.

Now the person Keith despises most is the closest thing he has to family - until Sara returns.  If Sara returns.

I recently read another book by Ms. Chamberlain, BEFORE THE STORM.  I learned through a comment on that blog post that this book, SECRETS SHE LEFT BEHIND, continues the story.

As was the first book, this one is told from different viewpoints - each chapter narrated by different characters.  Keith is full of anger and pain; Maggie is trying to find a place to fit in as she returns from prison.  There is another person involved, a link between Keith and Maggie, who brings about an exciting ending to the book.

It was nice to get a different perspective on the various characters and see where their lives were leading.  Makes me wish there were another book dealing with these same characters.  Perhaps one day Ms. Chamberlain will write that book.