

- English literature, New York Times bestseller, New York Times reviewed, Fiction, mystery & detective, police procedural
There are two kinds of families: the ones we are born into and the ones we create. Walk has never left the coastal California town where he grew up. He may have become the chief of police, but he’s still trying to heal the old wound of having given the testimony that sent his best friend, Vincent King, to prison decades before. Now, thirty years later, Vincent is being released. Duchess is a thirteen-year-old self-proclaimed outlaw. Her mother, Star, grew up with Walk and Vincent. Walk is in overdrive trying to protect them, but Vincent and Star seem bent on sliding deeper into self-destruction. Star always burned bright, but recently that light has dimmed, leaving Duchess to parent not only her mother but her five-year-old brother. At school the other kids make fun of Duchess―her clothes are torn, her hair a mess. But let them throw their sticks, because she’ll throw stones. Rules are for other people. She’s just trying to survive and keep her family together. A forty-something-year-old sheriff and a thirteen-year-old girl may not seem to have a lot in common. But they both have come to expect that people will disappoint you, loved ones will leave you, and if you open your heart it will be broken. So when trouble arrives with Vincent King, Walk and Duchess find they will be unable to do anything but usher it in, arms wide closed.
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Character
Earnest, grave, contemporary and classical in form.
- earnestironic
- gravecomic
- contemporarynostalgic
- classical in formformally daring
- cooloverwhelming
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About the book
- Author
- Chris Whitaker
- First published
- 2020
- Pages
- 400
- Publisher
- Thorndike Press Large Print, Holt Paperbacks, Large Print Press
- Editions
- 9
- Language
- English
- ISBN
- 9781250759672
Where to read
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On Open Library, 3 have read it and 32 want to.
“You see something and you raise your hand.”
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