Suzie Housley, Midwest Book Review…”Parsons writes with an intense purpose that will leave the reader fully satisfied. Masterfully crafted…readers will find themselves unable to put this book down.”

Cambridge, Massachusetts…Detective Karl Shea is drinking Tanqueray London Dry Gin, straight up, at a bar in Harvard Square. He hasn’t been to church in thirty years, but the prayer he learned to the rhythmic tap of the nuns’ rulers ruminates through his brain…confess my sins, do penance, and amend my life, Amen. Amend. With less than a year to live, Karl knows he has to start amending now if he’s to secure that friendly nod at the pearly gates.
There’s his wife. He’s been a womanizing, beer-guzzling, crappy husband to Shirley every day of their marriage. It won’t be easy, but he’ll earn her forgiveness. And there’s the matter of his last case. A child gone missing from her mother’s boyfriend’s backyard. He’ll find her, even if it kills him, as amends for the one he let slip through his fingers.
So, the redemption plan is complete. Follow the doctor’s orders, quit the cigarettes and cut down on the booze, say sorry to Shirley, and find a missing child.

But not so fast, Karl. Turns out, Shirley wants a lot more than an almost-on-your deathbed apology, and she’s holding you to it. And as for the missing kid…

Winner of the 2021 Fiction Award from the Independent Publishers of New England