1943

Clara has a secret. To tell it, Harry said, would be a mistake. And Harry was always right. In the cold back seat of a yellow DeSoto, she glanced over her shoulder as Black Pines Asylum was swallowed by the trees. Better that way.

When she noticed the cabbie looking at her in the rearview mirror, she turned her head toward the window, preferring not to engage, not to converse. She just wanted silence, though sometimes the thoughts that pounded in her head were louder than the cabbie could ever be. Sometimes the distraction was welcome, but not today. Today was special.

About The Darkness You Hide

Clara Winslow should know better. She’s been down this road before, but sometimes life just isn’t fair. In 1943, she is released from Black Pines Asylum where she spent more than half of her life for killing a young classmate at the tender age of eleven. Abandoned by her family, the only relationship she has is with her psychiatrist, Harry Carnes. Now on her own, Clara is awkward and naive to the outside world.

She finds work as a nanny for the young, wealthy widower, Victor Garrison. She has a new home, a new family, and a new love. She almost immediately knows she wants to be there forever but there’s a problem. Margaret Talbot, Victor’s self-professed girlfriend, has already put her claim on him. The socialite is ruthless and determined. She will stop at nothing to oust the latest nanny. Clara isn’t worldly, but something worse. She’s a sociopath.

Recently finished, The Darkness You Hide is being marketed to agents.