It Takes One (Audrey Harte)

by Kate Kessler

They say there are no secrets in a small town...

Criminal psychologist Audrey Harte is returning home after seven years. She'll have to face the whispers and the rumors that have haunted her family since she left. Because when Audrey was thirteen, she and her best friend Maggie killed Maggie's abusive father.

Her first night back in town ends in a fight with a drunken Maggie, with her old crush Jake to witness it all. Audrey can't believe it can get worse.

Then Maggie turns up dead. Now, Audrey has to find out who the murderer is - before everyone decides that she is to blame. And before the murderer can set their sights on her.

• ISBN10: 0316302503
• ISBN13: 9780316302500
• Publish Date: 30 June 2016 (first published 26 April 2016)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 6 August 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Orbit
• Format: Paperback (UK Trade)
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[kimbacaffeinate]

an enjoyable mystery

[Beth C.]

Audrey Harte is going home. No permanently, mind you. No, she's going home after a seven-year absence to for her mother's birthday - and she will be leaving as soon as humanly possible. She will go back to her life in California, as far away from the small town she grew up in and the knowledge that to most there, she is nothing but a murderer. But when her (former) best friend, and the person she killed for as a teen, is murdered on her first night home, all bets about her leaving soon are off. In fact, all bets about whether she will survive the trip home are off.

Audrey was fascinating to me as a reader. She committed this horrible crime as a kid, but for reasons she still feels are absolutely the right ones. She has used that crime and her stay in a juvenile facility as a way escape her town and educate herself and help others. Yet, she has never truly forgiven herself - or her best friend - for the events that transpired. But like everyone else, going home opens closets and unearths skeletons best left buried. She's a strong heroine, but definitely has her flaws.

The characters in general were interesting, though my favorite was someone who never actually made an appearance in the book. All the characters have their own motivations, and no one could be said to be purely good or bad. Human frailties abound, but so do moments of courage and love. No cardboard cutout characters here.

I read this book on the recommendation of someone else, and I ended up staying up until 2am to finish it. This wee hours of the morning reading is unusual for me these days, with a job and two kids and everything else that embodies my life. So to willingly give myself a reading hangover, the book was just that good. It's delightful and twisted and delightfully twisted in all the right ways. Knowing that this is the first of a series starring Audrey Harte, I look forward to reading the next one.