Such Pretty Flowers - A Novel

Informationen zum Autor K. L. Cerra uses her writing to explore the complexities—and the darker sides—of relationships. When not writing or seeing clients as a trained marriage and family therapist, Cerra is likely walking her Boston terrier or exploring the local botanical gardens. She lives with her husband in a small beach town outside of Los Angeles. Klappentext "A woman investigating her brother's apparent suicide finds herself falling for her prime suspect--his darkly mysterious girlfriend--in this edgy Southern gothic thriller. 'Get it out of me.' It was the last message Holly received from her brother, Dane, before he was found cleaved open in his fiancâee's lavish Savannah townhouse. Police ruled his death a suicide sparked by psychosis, but Holly can't shake the idea that something else must have happened... Something involving another message he sent that night, the one that mentioned a 'game' his fiancâee, Maura, wanted to play... Determined to discover the truth, Holly begins to stalk Maura--a magnetic, black-eyed florist with a penchant for carnivorous plants. But what begins as an investigation quickly veers into a darker fixation, one that lures Holly into the depths of Maura's world: Savannah high society, eerie black roses, and a whisper of something more sinister. Soon, Holly is feeling a dark attraction to the one woman she shouldn't trust. As Holly falls deeper for Maura and her secrets, she's left with only one choice: find out what happened to Dane... before she meets the same fate"-- Leseprobe Chapter 1 Maura brought pomegranates to Dane’s funeral reception. It was an odd choice and I mentioned this to Rachel, the hard pew edge biting into my thigh. “What’s wrong with pomegranates?” Rachel said. I pictured a halved pomegranate. Those wreaths of slick, pink organs made my skin scuttle over my bones, just like when I looked too closely at a wasp’s nest or a strawberry. I’d googled the sensation: trypophobia. Fear of holes and circle clusters. But this felt too exhausting to explain in a whisper. “Haven’t you heard of Persephone and Hades? Referencing eternal damnation to the underworld feels a tad insensitive, today of all days.” Rachel’s cheek puffed. “Okay, Holly.” Her eyes were fastened on the pulpit where Maura stood. I had no choice but to look, too. My brother’s now ex-­girlfriend was adjusting the stem of a tiny microphone. She had a face that made your mind itch as it tried to pinpoint what felt off. There was definitely something threading under the luminous skin. Inky princess tresses, black eyes, and sharp, birdlike bones that jutted at her clavicle. She wore a birdcage veil with pearled netting at an angle that fell a smidge short of jaunty. Seeing it—­seeing her—­gave me a jolt, like missing a step on my way down a staircase. Even speaking at my brother’s funeral, Maura needed to enrapture. Dane had brought his new girlfriend to meet the family over Easter brunch, five months ago now. Back then, the two of them had been dating only a few weeks. Maura complimented the plasterwork of my childhood home in that musical voice of hers; uncharacteristically, Mom had nothing critical to say afterward. She has polish, was all she provided. It was undeniable: Maura had dazzled both of my parents. I think, on some level, they’d doubted Dane’s ability to land a girl like her. As I sat in the pew, my fists fizzed with heat. We’d all doubted him, and now, here we were. How would things have turned out differently had we listened? It was a cruel game I often played during the long nights after his suicide when I knew sleep was futile. What if we’d tried a little harder? Rachel told me I couldn’t get swept away in what-­ifs, but really, who was she to tell me that? She wasn’t the one fighting the riptide, feeling like the past was a puzzle. One that maybe, put together a different way, could have kept ...

Product details

• Authors: K L Cerra, K. L. Cerra
• Publisher: Bantam Books USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 07.02.2023
• EAN: 9780593500255
• ISBN: 978-0-593-50025-5
• No. of pages: 336
• Dimensions: 130 mm x 201 mm x 18 mm
• Subject: Fiction > Suspense