Publication Date: November 19, 2024
A dazzling thriller about a young woman whose fabulously wealthy mother might be the victim of an elaborate con or might be losing her mind—and the daughter can’t tell where the truth lies.
Julie’s mother Kate is a force of nature––a glamorous woman of seventy, a self-made real estate developer, a grande dame in Florida society, and a power broker in Florida politics. It wasn’t easy for Julie to grow up in the shadow of such a dynamo, but she loves her mother, and she and her husband Eric are thrilled when Kate marries her long-lost high school sweetheart, a salt-of-the-earth man named Charlie.
But their storybook romance ends abruptly. On their wedding night, Kate calls the police in hysterics to report that Charlie just confessed to a notorious unsolved crime from decades before.
Charlie says she imagined it. Eric says that Kate has dementia. And the FBI says that Charlie couldn’t possibly have committed that crime.
Julie doesn’t know what to believe. Is her brilliant mother losing her mind? Or is sweet, lovable Charlie gaslighting Kate to gain control of her fortune?
As Julie tries to navigate through this maze of paranoia and mind games, cracks start to develop in her own marriage as it seems that Eric is keeping secrets . . .
Set against a backdrop of rampant development and devastating climate change, Shell Games is a psychological thriller that will make your head spin and the pages turn as you wonder exactly who is doing what to whom.
Kate Sawyer has made a name for herself as a successful real estate developer. Now, she’s celebrating a new marriage to her high school sweetheart, reunited after 50 years.
Author Bonnie Kistler delivers a psychological thriller in Shell Games. What appears to be a celebratory moment soon devolves into chaos. Kate’s daughter, Julia, is left picking up the pieces.
Is her mother correct in her claims, or is she caught up in the throes of dementia? As the mystery unfolds, secrets bubble to the surface. How far would someone go to get control of Kate’s fortune?
Julia’s character evolves tremendously throughout the story. In spite of a childhood tragedy and life in Kate’s shadow, she has to develop her own voice. That process also forces her to look at her marriage and question her husband’s activities.
Shell Games serves up a multi-faceted thriller that delivers a number of unexpected plot twists.
Bonnie Kistler is the author of The Cage and Her, Too. A former Philadelphia trial lawyer, she was born in Pennsylvania and educated at Bryn Mawr College and the University of the Pennsylvania Law School. She and her husband now live in southwest Florida and the mountains of western North Carolina.
