Marie Force's gripping thriller, In the Air Tonight, brings Blaise Merrick back to a crime she witnessed at age 17: Ryder, her high school's golden boy, raping Denise, a classmate. More than a decade later, when she learns that Ryder has decided to run for Congress, Blaise heads back to the small Rhode Island hometown she rarely visits. Having lived with her own silence and regretted it every day, Blaise is determined to do the right thing this time: report the truth and expose Ryder's perfect facade. Her confession and its implications will rock her town--and her family--to its core.
Told in the main characters' first-person voices, Force's propulsive narrative shifts between "Now" (following Blaise's return home) and "Then" (the night of the crime and the days immediately after). Force examines each character's motivations for their actions, and explores the intricate web of small-town relationships that affect everyone's choices. The novel delves into questions of victim blaming, public accountability, whether righting past wrongs is truly possible, and whether a person should be defined by their worst (or best) act. Blaise may be motivated by a desire for justice, but she quickly learns that her decision will have unexpected ramifications not only for Denise and Ryder but also their families and friends.
Tightly plotted and sensitively told, In the Air Tonight deftly handles contemporary hot-button issues as it looks at one woman's difficult path in choosing justice. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams