The Glass Butterfly

The only way therapist Victoria Lake can think to protect her estranged son, Jack, from a case turned deadly is to make a complete break from the past. As painful as it is, it's safer for him if he - and her enemies - think she's dead. Jack never wanted to believe in his mother's psychic abilities. Yet he can't deny his own conviction that she's alive, despite the meticulous police investigation and the somber funeral. To survive, Victoria knows she has to reinvent herself completely. She can't even listen to her beloved Puccini. But without the music in her ears, eerie dreams invade her sleep. Lush with the sounds and sights of 19th-century Tuscany, they're also loaded with a present-day warning she can't afford to ignore... Review Romantic Times : Marley's latest is a poetic blend of historical fiction and suspense. Readers are kept waiting anxiously in the dark for details behind Tory's escape . . . Marley also awards readers with a book-within-a-book, a glimpse into the life of the composer Puccini. Beautifully written and intimate . . .--Sarah Eisenbraun" SciFi Magazine : Louise Marley's latest is a slipstream offering . . . The tone is literary, the language rich, and the feelings wrapped up in Tory's intense love of music--and her unresolved relationship with the estranged son.--Adam-Troy Castro Nocturne Romance Reads : Marley's novel could be classified as a mystery; however such a perspective would minimize the intensity of the emotional elements. . . Marley excels at setting rich and colorful scenes. The tension and suspense surrounds Tory, Jack and their friends, as well as the antagonist. The Seattle Times : Seattle-based opera singer/novelist Louise Marley knits together two related plot lines -- a contemporary story about a therapist in deadly peril from a patient, and a domestic drama in the life of opera composer Giacomo Puccini -- into a gripping novel about obsession and its consequences.--Melinda Bargreen From the Author Shopping once in an antiques store--in Cannon Beach, Oregon, in fact, where this novel is set--it struck me that it would be possible to construct a whole new life out of the things in that store. Old photos, old linens and glassware, books and papers and keepsakes, all turn up for sale. What became of the people who once treasured them? It's impossible to know. The story within a story of this novel concerns a young girl who worked for the Puccini family in Italy. History tells us one side of her story. The Glass Butterfly explores a different interpretation, and proposes that a keepsake of hers connects her story to that of Tory Lake. It is both a comfort and a warning, an omen of the threat that hangs over her and her son. Slipping back and forth from the present day to nineteenth-century Italy, this is "a gripping novel about obsession and its consequences" ( Seattle Times ). A new life. A new name. A complete break with the past. It's the only way therapist Victoria Lake can think to protect her college-age son#8212;and herself#8212;from a case turned deadly. As painful as it may be, it's better he believe she's dead than let her enemies suspect that she's not. Jack could never stand his mother's insistence that sometimes intuition told her things facts couldn't. But he has a strange feeling that she's alive, despite the meticulous police investigation and the somber funeral. Of course, Jack is reconsidering several things his mother said, now that she's gone. To survive, Victoria knows she has to reinvent herself completely. She can't even listen to her beloved Puccini operas. But without the music in her ears, eerie dreams invade her sleep. Lush with the sights and sounds of nineteenth-century Tuscany, they're also loaded with a very real warning she can't afford to ignore . . . Known for blending suspense and fantasy, Louise Marley is the author of The Brahms Deception , praised by RT Book Reviews as a novel that "will keep readers with a love for books like Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife and A. S. Byatt's Possession on the edge of their seats." In The Glass Butterfly , she once again displays her talent for understanding the power and magic that lurks just under the surface of our lives In The Glass Butterfly, Louise Marley winds together a tale of subtle danger lurking in the past and a mother's sacrifice for her son's future. . .. A new life. A new name. A complete break with the past. It's the only way therapist Victoria Lake can think to protect her son--and herself--from a case turned deadly. She and Jack have barely spoken since he's gone to college. As painful as it is, it's better that he think she's dead than let her enemies suspect that she's not. Jack could never stand his mother's insistence that sometimes intuition told her things facts couldn't. But he has a strange feeling that she's alive, despite the meticulous police investigation and the somber funeral. Of course, Jack is reconsidering several things his mother said, now that she's gone. To survive, Victoria knows she has to reinvent herself completely. She can't even listen to her beloved Puccini. But without the music in her ears, eerie dreams invade her sleep. Lush with the sounds and sights of 19th-century Tuscany, they're also loaded with a very real warning she can't afford to ignore. . . Praise for Louise Marley and her novels "Will keep readers with a love for books like Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife and A.S. Byatt's Possession on the edge of their seats." --RT Book Reviews, 4 1⁄2 Stars on The Brahms Deception "Eerie, beautiful. . .has a poetic, haunting sense of time and place." --Stephanie Cowell on Mozart's Blood