Publication Date: May 6, 2025
A heartbreaking loss. A life-changing secret. Will the truth bring three daughters closer together or tear them apart?
Morgan, Charlotte, and Abby Weiss are filled with mixed emotions. After their beloved mother took her own life without leaving a note, the siblings go through the motions of a funeral while grappling with grief and anger at their parent’s actions.
Leaning into their close connection and taking a break from their lives, their men, and their personal issues, they move into their mother’s house in search of answers.
As they unearth clues about a mysterious stranger, the Weiss sisters travel to Las Vegas, hoping to find closure. However, they only encounter more questions and confusion as they follow the trail onward to New York… and their mother’s hidden past.
Can Morgan, Charlotte, and Abby survive a revelation that changes everything they hold to be true?
When People Leave is a captivating contemporary novel that explores familial relationships, grief, anger, and resolutions. If you like witty dialogue, drama infused with endearing humor, and strong family dynamics, you’ll love Leslie A. Rasmussen’s thought-provoking story.
Buy When People Leave to confront inner truths today!
A mother’s suicide propels her adult daughters to examine themselves and their relationships as they try to find answers.
Author Leslie A. Rasmussen tells the story in alternating perspectives featuring Carla and her daughters, Morgan, Charlotte, and Abby. When People Leave illustrates the importance of closure.
Following Carla’s death, her daughters gather in her home and discover secrets about the past that reshape their lives. The character development draws readers in. As the eldest, Morgan’s battle with alcoholism consumes much of her focus. Charlie, despite a career advising others, can’t break up with her leech of a boyfriend. Then there is Abby with a lovable husband and four small children.
Together, the sisters dish up old memories and follow the clues to Las Vegas and New York City, where they uncover the real Carla Weiss. In the midst of their loss, they gain a better understanding of how to start over.
The poignant scenes, whether it’s the sisters bickering over seat placement or joking about Abby’s wild children, prompt readers to think about their own lives.
When People Leave uses a mother’s death as a catalyst for her daughters to fully understand her complicated legacy.
Leslie A. Rasmussen was born and raised in Los Angeles and graduated from UCLA. She went on to write television comedies for Gerald McRaney, Burt Reynolds, Roseanne Barr, Norm McDonald, Drew Carey, The Wild Thornberrys, and Sweet Valley High. After leaving the business to raise her boys, Leslie obtained a master’s degree in nutrition and ran her own business for ten years. Leslie has been published in the Huffington Post over twenty times and speaks on panels discussing female empowerment. She’s a member of The Writers Guild of America, Women in Film, and The UCLA Alumni Association. After Happily Ever After is Leslie’s debut novel and has won over fifteen awards, and her second novel, The Stories We Cannot Tell, has won eleven awards, and she’s been interviewed about it on NPR and XM radio. Leslie’s newest novel, When People Leave, will be published in May. When Leslie isn’t writing, she loves reading, exercising, and spending time with friends. Leslie lives in Southern California with her husband and two sons.
