Not One of Us

Jori Trahan's boyfriend disappeared thirteen years ago and was never found. She has now returned to her home in Alabama to look after her ailing grandmother and her autistic brother, and the old mystery is waiting for her there.

Jori has a rare form of synesthesia: she "hears" colors, and each person's tone of voice is as distinct to her as a fingerprint. She uses that ability, along with help from a sympathetic cop, to get close to what happened to the boyfriend. The closer she gets, the more danger she is in.

The people responsible will do anything to keep their secrets buried, murder included. No one in the sleepy bayou town is safe. When Jori's brother is kidnapped, she has to weigh the investigation against the people she loves.

This is a brooding thriller with a small-town Southern setting and a heroine caught between two loyalties. Keeping her family safe might mean letting a wrong go unpunished and living with that silence, and the book keeps that cost in view as the threat to her family grows.