Black-Eyed Susans by, Julia Heaberlin
Available in-house in hardcover and coming soon to
Library2Go
I am the star of
screaming headlines and campfire ghost stories.
I am one of the four
Black-Eyed Susans.
The lucky one.
As a sixteen-year-old,
Tessa Cartwright was found in a Texas field, barely alive amid a scattering of
bones, with only fragments of memory as to how she got there. Ever since, the
press has pursued her as the lone surviving “Black-Eyed Susan,” the nickname
given to the murder victims because of the yellow carpet of wildflowers that
flourished above their shared grave. Tessa’s testimony about those tragic hours
put a man on death row.
Now, almost two
decades later, Tessa is an artist and single mother. In the desolate cold of
February, she is shocked to discover a freshly planted patch of black-eyed
susans—a summertime bloom—just outside her bedroom window. Terrified at the
implications—that she sent the wrong man to prison and the real killer remains
at large—Tessa turns to the lawyers working to exonerate the man awaiting
execution. But the flowers alone are not proof enough, and the forensic
investigation of the still-unidentified bones is progressing too slowly. An
innocent life hangs in the balance. The legal team appeals to Tessa to undergo
hypnosis to retrieve lost memories—and to share the drawings she produced as
part of an experimental therapy shortly after her rescue.
What they don’t know
is that Tessa and the scared, fragile girl she was have built a fortress of secrets. As the clock ticks
toward the execution, Tessa fears for her sanity, but even more for the safety
of her teenaged daughter. Is a serial killer still roaming free, taunting Tessa
with a trail of clues? She has no choice but to confront old ghosts and
lingering nightmares to finally discover what really happened that night.
Shocking, intense, and
utterly original, Black-Eyed Susans is a dazzling psychological thriller,
seamlessly weaving past and present in a searing tale of a young woman whose
harrowing memories remain in a field of flowers—as a killer makes a chilling
return to his garden
My Review:
Wow this book was so hard to put down. I did not even come
close to figuring out who the monster was; she put in just enough red herrings
to keep me guessing all the way to the reveal.
For the longest time I wondered if Lydia was imaginary,
maybe one of the Susan’s.
This book is told from 2 perspectives Tessa present day and
Tessie in 1995 still trying to come to grips with almost dying and being
prepared for the trial of the man she is told did this to her. They are the
same person yet not. These jumps in time made for an interesting way to tell
the story of what happened to Tessa. Especially since she only remembers what
happened just before she was taken and waking up in a grave with the other
Susan’s. Who did this to her and what happens in between is just blackness but
they told her the man Terrell did it and he was put on death row for the
crime , but did he? Now she's not sure.
Bringing this entire thing up again is really tough on Tessa
especially since she has a teenage daughter of her own now and she doesn't want
her daughter dragged down by this, but there is a man on death row that might
be innocent and his execution is coming up fast. Tessa already lives with so
much survivors’ guilt that she's not sure she can handle the guilt of her part
of sending an innocent man to his death.
The forensics were a huge part of this book and you can tell
the author did a lot of research for these parts which made this story feel
like true crime, I believed it all.
I was so absorbed in this book and as I said it was so hard
to put down I needed to know just as Tessa needed to know, what happened to
her, who did this to her? The journey to get there was filled with sometimes
manic decisions on Tessa's part but you could understand where she was coming
from, she wouldn't be able to live with Terrell’s death on her conscience.
This book was amazing so well written; I don’t want to give
too much away so I will just say…
Read This Book Now!
5 Stars
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