In the comfortable suburb where she lives, Heloise is just a mom, the youngish widow with a forgettable job who somehow never misses her son's soccer games or school plays.

But in discrete hotel rooms throughout the area, she's the woman of your dreams - if you can afford her hourly fee.
For more than a decade, Heloise has believed her unorthodox life to be a safe one; rigidly compartmentalized, maintaining no real friendships and trusting very few people. But now this secret life is under siege. Her once oblivious accountant is asking loaded questions about her business. Her longtime protector is hinting at new, mysterious dangers. Her employees can no longer be trusted. Her ex, the one who doesn't know he's the father of her son, is appealing his life sentence. And, one county over, another so-called 'suburban madam' has been found dead in her car, an apparent suicide...

Can Heloise stay alive long enough to remake her life again, and save her son? Can she really expect to leave everything else behind?

Laura Lippman was a reporter for twenty years, including twelve years at The Baltimore Sun. Her novels have won numerous crime fiction prizes, including the Edgar, Anthony, Nero Wolfe and Agatha awards in the US. As well as featuring in numerous end of year lists, her most recent novel Sunburn (2018) was nominated for the CWA Gold Dagger Award, won the eDunnit Award and was a Waterstones Book of the Month.