So Much Pretty: A Novel

So Much Pretty: A Novel by Hoffman, Cara. paperback edition. ISBN: 9781451617283.

“So Much Pretty is a fearless first novel,” announced The New York Times Book Review, “for all the passion in this intense narrative, Hoffman writes with a restraint that makes poetry of pain.” Set in a rural community steeped in silence and denial, So Much Pretty explores all parents’ greatest fear, that their child will be hurt. But it also examines a second, equally troubling question: What if my child hurts someone else? The disappearance and murder of nineteen-year-old Wendy White is detailed through the eyes of journalist Stacy Flynn and a host of other richly drawn characters, each with their own secrets and convictions. After Wendy’s body is found, Flynn’s intense crusade to expose a killer draws the attention of a precocious local girl, Alice Piper, whose story intertwines with Wendy’s in a spellbinding and unexpected climax.