Nate and Irene Stanley have the perfect comfortable life in Illinois. Living in the farmhouse that Irene grew up in on their many acres, Irene is content being a stay at home mother to their two children, thirteen year old Shep and ten year old Bliss while Nate is a deputy for their town's police squad. Then one day, Nate comes home and tells Irene he's accepted a position in Blaine, Oregon as Deputy Chief. Irene is loathe to go, but her pastor tells her that her job as a wife and mother is to obey and assist , and after hearing this prepares to pack and leave her home behind.
Upon arriving, things seem to be going well. Shep loves the mountains and nature he may explore any time, Bliss is Class President, and Irene has taken a job of her own at the local grocery store. While the move hasn't brought Shep and Nate closer together as she had hoped it would, it hasn't done anything to damage her close relationship with Shep and for that she is grateful. His musical abilities, and kind warm ways are something she adores, and she admittedly coddles him quite a bit, while Bliss is undoubtedly still Daddy's little girl.

Then the unthinkable happens. Shep is home alone one day when an intruder kills him. The end of the world the Stanleys once knew, they each retreat into themselves and deal with the anguish the only way each knows how. The murderer is quickly caught and a trial dictates that he receive the death penalty as his penance. Irene thought that this would help her cope, revenge and punishment, but finds that nothing can heal the empty hole that losing her son has caused. Years after Shep is killed, Irene writes a letter to his killer, seeking some sort of closure. She doesn't expect to hear back from him, but she does, and they begin to correspond for several years. Nineteen years after the loss of her son, the word comes from Oregon that the man who killed her son will finally be executed. What follows is a shock and unravels the world she's encased herself in for the last two decades.

When I received this book, I read the back and was eager to delve into the story. I was not disappointed at all! The details were rich and the heartache of all jumped off the pages. Also weaved into the main plotline were many smaller plots, and I have to say that the story of Mason, the warden of the prison, is quite raw and evocative as well. I was worried that the plot would become a tad formulaic and would lead up to some shocking twist at the end, and I was right on exactly 1/3 of that. There is a twist that comes out of nowhere, but the shock comes from the fallout, and this book was anything but formulaic. I look forward to many more novels to come by this author.