The Record

Rachel Adler writes down, by date and time, the people watching her fifteen-year-old daughter, Lily. Late one night, a call comes to the landline, with Lily asleep in the next room. “I called this one on purpose,” a courteous stranger says. “It’s the number listed to the house.” He wants Rachel to hear his voice, so the next time she hears it, it will not be a stranger’s. Then he waits for her to hang up. Rachel means to give the police his name before he gets near Lily.

By autumn, Rachel’s body is failing her. Every evening, a metallic taste fills her mouth, and her legs go slow on the stairs. Meanwhile, Lily volunteers at Bellhaven, where the man on the telephone visits the residents nobody else does, and does it well. Lily likes him for it.

Now Rachel is caught in a trap. She cannot prove what is being done to her body without proving she is unfit to say so. Speaking up makes her sound sicker with every word. Staying quiet lets Lily drift closer to the man. And Lily has already climbed into his car.

A suspenseful psychological thriller about true words turned into weapons, a mother’s fight to keep her daughter safe, and how easily a woman can lose the right to speak for herself.