Amy's Choice: "The Last House on the Street," by Diane Chamberlain
Noon, Saturday February 4
Site: Cracker Barrel in West Valley City
A community's past sins rise to the surface in New York Times
bestselling author Diane Chamberlain's The Last House on the Street when
two women, a generation apart, find themselves bound by tragedy and an
unsolved, decades-old mystery. 1965 Growing up in the well-to-do town of
Round Hill, North Carolina, Ellie Hockley was raised to be a certain
type of proper Southern lady. Enrolled in college and all but engaged to
a bank manager, Ellie isn't as committed to her expected future as her
family believes. She's chosen to spend her summer break as a volunteer
helping to register black voters. But as Ellie follows her ideals
fighting for the civil rights of the marginalized, her scandalized
parents scorn her efforts, and her neighbors reveal their prejudices.
And when she loses her heart to a fellow volunteer, Ellie discovers the
frightening true nature of the people living in Round Hill. 2010
Architect Kayla Carter and her husband designed a beautiful house for
themselves in Round Hill's new development, Shadow Ridge Estates. It was
supposed to be a home where they could raise their three-year-old
daughter and grow old together. Instead, it's the place where Kayla's
husband died in an accident--a fact known to a mysterious woman who
warns Kayla against moving in. The woods and lake behind the property
are reputed to be haunted, and the new home has been targeted by vandals
leaving threatening notes. And Kayla's neighbor Ellie Hockley is
harboring long buried secrets about the dark history of the land where
her house was built. Two women. Two stories. Both on a collision course
with the truth--no matter what that truth may bring to light--in Diane
Chamberlain's riveting, powerful novel about the search for justice.
