A woman missing and presumed dead for 10 years inconveniently turns up and promptly wreaks havoc on the family her husband's built in her absence. Lydia and Luca Coletto had been married only a short time when she was snatched from a hiking trail outside Bent Creek, Oregon, by a sexual psychopath she came to call The Monster. Imprisoned for nine years, she finally escaped after he shot her and left her for dead. Now she's made her way back to Bent Creek with nothing--no money, no job, no papers, no identity. Her first attempt to gain entry to her former world is foiled when she knocks on Luca's door and it's answered by Merritt Coletto, his very pregnant second wife, who dismisses her as a delusional imposter and slams the door in her face. Her second attempt goes better: She talks herself into a part-time job with Delphine DuBois, the kindly owner of The Blessed Alchemist. Assured now of pocket money and a roof over her head, Lydia approaches Merritt again, persuades her that she's the real deal, and extracts an invitation to visit the whole family--Merritt, Luca, and their daughter, Elsie--whose upscale restaurant chain she can't help envying because she doesn't know how dangerously overextended they are, and how willing to do whatever it takes to maintain their toehold on a moneyed lifestyle they clearly see her as threatening. The proceedings are wildly improbable, but Kent sets her hook so deep and springs such a dumbfounding series of surprises that very few readers will want to interrupt their reading for anything less than a house fire. A blissful bolt of lightning for anyone willing to suspend their disbelief. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.