5-STAR REVIEW: A QUIET KIND OF WRONG by Mary Frances Hill

Publication Date: September 26, 2025

One mistake. One secret. One family about to unravel.

Jane Taylor seems to have it all—a loving husband, a successful career as a children’s book author, and a picture-perfect life in Orange County. But one terrible night, she hits her neighbor’s teenage son, panics, and drives away. The police never come to arrest her.

For a year, Jane hides behind her carefully constructed suburban façade. Then a true crime podcaster revisits the unsolved case, and her son, Noah, a podcast addict, discovers the guilt-soaked letters Jane has been writing to the victim.

When Jane resolves to confess, Noah begs her for time. He’s sure the truth about that night is more complicated. Terrified of what her imprisonment would do to her family, Jane reluctantly agrees to Noah’s request. But as their search for answers pulls them deeper into the secrets of their seemingly safe neighborhood, Jane soon realizes that she’s not the only one hiding something.

Dark, twist-filled, and emotionally charged, A Quiet Kind of Wrong explores guilt, family loyalty, and how far we’ll go to protect the lives we’ve created, even when they’re built on lies.

Jane Taylor should be a happy woman, but guilt is eating her alive. She’s keeping a devastating secret that has radically impacted her life.

Author Mary Frances Hill introduces readers to Aerospace Park, an upper-middle-class neighborhood, in A Quiet Kind of Wrong.

From all intents and purposes, it seems like the perfect place to raise a family–until the death of a teen boy. Told in first person from Jane’s perspective, the story picks up 364 days after Grayson’s death.

Jane finds herself with an unlikely ally after her journals are discovered. This, on top of a well-known true crime podcaster suddenly interested in solving Grayson’s case, puts Jane in quite a predicament.

The author balances the emotional toll of both guilt and grief with a number of surprising twists that rock the neighborhood.

A Quiet Kind of Wrong centers around a mistake with compounded consequences.

 

Mary Frances Hill was born in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. The daughter of a music professor and an elementary school teacher, she obtained a master’s degree in counseling psychology and worked as a therapist before raising two children. Mary currently lives in Southern California with her Russian Blue and Scottish Straight cats, her Pyredoodle puppy, her golfer husband, and her adult son and daughter. She is an avid dog walker and home renovator and loves binge-watching true crime documentaries and mysteries. She is the author of three novels: The Worm Man, The Heaven Spot, and A Quiet Kind of Wrong.

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