GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

Her mother’s death begins a cascade of increasingly criminal traumas for a Boston law student.

Claire Taylor’s dementia has deepened, but she seems safe in Thompson House, a residential memory-care facility where she’s bonded with medication nurse Terry Walsh. When she unexpectedly dies soon after repeatedly mentioning the name Sheila Fairclough, her daughter, Olivia, is at a loss in more ways than one. She can’t help but be struck by the coincidence that the newest member of her study group at Portia Law School is Boston cop Ryan Fairclough, whose officious intervention had earlier forced Olivia to stop caring for her mother at home. Neglected by her husband, psychiatric resident Daniel Buchanan; bereft of her only other relative; and subject to a troubling series of attacks, from the theft of an orchid someone’s sent to commemorate her mother’s death to the slashing of her tires, Liv determines to track down Sheila Fairclough. Her search leads her to a raft of unholy revelations about her mother, who'd told Liv years ago that she’d fled with her from Liv’s father, and her own identity. Along the way, she finds just enough time to apply to become the legal guardian for Brady Parro, the 2-day-old baby who inherited an opioid addiction from his late mother, who turns out to be in even greater danger than she is. Dorsey escalates the tension masterfully until Liv uncovers one secret too many and lands both herself and Brady in mortal danger.

An endless supply of family skeletons compete for attention as they tumble from the closet.