Things We Do In The Dark by Jennifer Hillier

 

Paris has lived a hard life.  As a child, she was the victim of vicious child abuse.  Her mother, it turned out, was a cold-blooded killer known as The Ice Queen after killing her lover.  Paris had testified at the trial and her testimony sent her mother to prison for life with parole possibility after twenty-five years.  Paris was sent to live with relatives who resented her presence.  As soon as she turned eighteen, she ran off and made her way the best she could, a way that included stripping in a men's club.

After a tragedy, Paris ran away again and started another new life.  She put her old life and identity behind her and that's when she became Paris rather than the name she grew up as.  She ran to California and started teaching yoga classes.  Eventually she owned her own studio and that's where she met Jimmy.  Jimmy was much older than she but somehow they clicked.  He was a well-known retired comedian who had had a hit series that everyone knew.  It took a while but he eventually convinced her to marry him.

Returning from a weekend away, Paris finds Jimmy in the bathtub, covered in blood.  She is arrested for his murder although it could have been suicide just as well.  Paris isn't that worried about the murder charge because she knows she wasn't even in the area when his death occurs.  What she is worried about is her mother who has gotten parole and is threatening to reveal Paris' past unless Paris pays her off.  Are some people just meant for tragedy?

Jennifer Hillier is a Canadian author whose crime novels have won many awards.  In this, her eighth novel, she creates a character in Paris that the reader can't help but love and cheer for even as it seems life is determined to drag her down no matter what she does.  Paris is an example of how some people can overcome terrible life events while others drown in them.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.