After Her

After Her by Joyce Maynard

Imagination.  Oh, the places you'll see, the people you'll meet;  just use your imagination.

Sisters Patty and Rachel Torricelli live in a sleepy housing development in Northern California not far from San Francisco.  From their window they can see Mount Tamalpais.  Who needs an expensive playground in your yard when acres an acres of mountain trails and untouched treasures are waitung to be explored?  Patty loves basketball, dogs and  her older sister.  Rachel, the protector, can turn any mundane summer day into a memorable one with her ability to make-believe, tell tall tales, and create fantasies about the neighbors.  She also claims to have  the gift of knowing what is in the minds of those around her.

Two girls virtually on their own.  Parents who love them but not each other.  Father Tony is an incredibly handsome, charasmatic homicide detective.  Mother Lillian spends most nights alone reading in her room, no longer able to  live with her husband's infidelities.  A fractured family learning to cope, until murders begin to take place in the mountain area.  Hideous, horrific crimes of a serial killer (known as the Sunset Strangler)  leave the police baffled, most of all Detective Tony Torricelli.  He is thrown into the spotlight as the lead investigator, and as the months go by with no arrests, people begin to lose faith in him; he loses faith in himself.  Rachel and Patty must now take it upon themselves to trap the killer and save their father's reputation.

The story covers a span of over thirty years.  During that span of time, many other characters emerge that become a vital part of the novel.  Yes, the descriptive details of the murders are disturbing.  But the author also attempts to convey to the reader the undying love and loyalty between sisters, Rachel's relentless, dangerous journey to  vindicate her father, and a most astounding  family secret that is finally revealed.  Needless to say, a dramatic conclusion. 

Loosely based on a true story from the 1970s, this narrative is a suspenseful thriller.  It is also poignant and heartwarming as the bond of sisterhood is explored.  Two young girls with .....

Imagination