Christmas Presents by Lisa Unger

 

Ten years ago ended Madeline Martin's innocent life.  It was the night that she went to a party against the pleas of her best friend, Badger.  The night she found out that her first love, Evan Handy, was cheating on her with her best friend.  The night Evan killed her best friend in front of her and would have killed her also if she hadn't escaped and been found on the shore of a frozen river by Badger.

Now Evan has been in prison for ten years and Madeline is trying to go on with her life.  She runs a bookstore in the town where she was raised.  Her father, the former sheriff, had a stroke that has disabled him and she lives with him and takes care of him as best she can.  Her life is bland and unexciting and that's how she likes it.

Then Harley Granger shows up in town.  He is a crime podcaster and he has decided that the Evan Handy case would make for a blockbuster.  He tries to get Madeline to come on his podcast and stirs up all the people involved that night.  Evan still insists from prison that he is innocent.  Girls have gone missing since that night, one just days ago.  Is there someone else out there?  Madeline has been receiving Christmas presents sent anonymously and she doesn't know if she has a secret admirer or if they are a warning that someone is coming to finish the job from ten years ago.

Lisa Unger is known for her work in the suspense genre.  She has written over twenty novels, most of them bestsellers, and has received numerous awards.  In this book, she knows exactly how to racket up the tension and let the clues emerge slowly.  I listened to this book and the narrator has a voice full of suspense.  Madeline is still living in the past and ignoring what is coming in the present.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.