Prom Mom by Laura Lippman

Prom Mom by Laura Lippman

"Well-plotted, well-written, clear-eyed. I never saw the end coming. There's a hell of a one-two punch waiting for you." --Stephen King

New York Times bestseller Laura Lippman's latest mesmerizing thriller tells the story of Amber Glass, desperately trying to escape her tabloid past but compulsively drawn back into a game of cat-and-mouse with the prom date who destroyed everything she was reaching for.

Amber Glass has spent her entire adult life putting as much distance as possible between her and her hometown of Baltimore, where she fears she will forever be known as "Prom Mom"--the girl accused of killing her own baby on the night of the prom after her date, Joe Simpson, abandoned her to pursue the girl he really liked. But when circumstances bring Amber back to the city, she realizes she can have a second chance--as long as she stays away from Joe, now a successful real estate developer, married to a plastic surgeon, Meredith, to whom he is devoted. 

The problem is, Amber can't stay away from Joe. And Joe finds that it's increasingly hard for him to ignore Amber. Against the surreal backdrop of 2020 and early 2021, the two are slowly drawn to each other and eventually cross the line they've been trying not to cross. 

And then Joe asks Amber to help him do the unthinkable . . . and she must decide if she is willing to let their toxic and dangerous past repeat itself in this fresh, transgressive take on classic noir.

Joseph Wallace has published over fifteen books and dozens of articles on a wide range of themes, including baseball, natural history, medicine, and the invention of the light bulb. Liminal is his first published noir story. Laura Lippman deserves credit for suggesting it, especially since he's a lifetime New York Mets fan who remembers the 1969 World Series well.