Best Kept Secrets - (A Nora Best Mystery) by Gwen Florio (Paperback)

About the Book

Nora Best returns to her hometown of Chateau in search of a new start but finds only trouble. A white police officer has shoot and killed a young Black man - the nephew of Bobby Evans, another Black man shot and killed in the sixties. Was it self-defense as claimed? Is the family connection a coincidence? What secrets are hidden in Chateau?

Book Synopsis

Nora heads home to Chateau in search of a fresh start, but her arrival comes at a time of social unrest that threatens to uncover long-hidden secrets. Nora Best is done running. She's heading to her hometown of Chateau, to the grand Quail House, to stay with her mother and claim the great American privilege of starting over. But she might find it is hard to start over when the past is catching up . . . The night Nora arrives in Chateau, a white police officer shoots and kills Robert Evans, a young Black man. The officer in question is Nora's school sweetheart, Alden Tydings. What really happened that night? Did Alden act in self-defense as he claims? Robert is the nephew of Bobby Evans, a man whose murder during the race protests of 1967 was never solved. Bobby and his sister, Grace, used to work at Quail House before Nora was born and, as tensions in Chateau rise, Nora begins to uncover secrets within her family home that could upend the lives of everyone in town . . .

Review Quotes

The first in a new series, told from the viewpoint of a woman over 50, on her own for the first time, introduces a complex story. Florio's ("Lola Wick" series) suspenseful mystery will have readers rooting for amateur sleuth Nora-- "Library Journal Starred Review of Best Laid Plans"

Baffling circumstances combine with life-changing adventures in this breathtaking page-turner-- "Kirkus Reviews Starred Review of Best Laid Plans"

Engrossing series launch. Fans of strong female leads will look forward to seeing more of plucky Nora-- "Publishers Weekly on Best Laid Plans"

About the Author

Gwen Florio grew up in a farmhouse filled with books and a ban on television. After studying English at the University of Delaware, she began a thirty-plus year career in journalism that has taken her around the country and to more than a dozen countries, including several conflict zones. Her first novel in the Lola Wick mystery series, Montana, won the Pinckley Prize for Crime Fiction and the High Plains Book Award, and was a finalist for the Shamus Award, an International Thriller Award and a Silver Falchion Award. She has since released four other books in the Lola Wick series and one standalone novel. Best Laid Plans is her first novel with Severn House. www.gwenflorio.net