Publication Date: June 18, 2024
The shooting of a homicide detective is captured on film by a mysterious figure from a second-floor window, implicating Riley Keane, an anti-gun activist and a school shooting survivor. Riley flees Chicago for a frozen island in Lake Superior. A race to find her ensues between her secret lover—Chicago politician Finn O’Farrell—a corrupt police lieutenant, and the mysterious cameraman who extorts Riley’s family and Finn. Finn’s entanglement with Riley and the extortionist threatens his ambitious political career.
On the island, Riley ingratiates herself into the close-knit community, but when she witnesses both an islander’s murder and another death in a suspicious boating accident, the local sheriff starts asking questions that begin to unravel her true identity. As the sheriff and the FBI are closing in on Riley, Finn faces media pressure to reveal his mysterious role in that long ago school shooting. If the facts come out, Finn may go to prison, but his biggest fear is that the truth will forever sever his relationship with Riley.
In a police stakeout gone bad, anti-gun activist and civilian Riley Keane’s decision to protect her friend ends up backfiring in a big way.
Forced to go on the run, Riley flees Chicago and heads north to find refuge within a small community. However, trouble is close behind.
Map of My Escape by Cheryl L. Reed delivers a dual storyline that links Riley’s past and present. The reason for her strong opposition to guns unfolds through glimpses of her past as a survivor of a school shooting.
Not only does Riley have to dodge the police, but she’s drawn into more trouble as a result of someone blackmailing her family and high-profile boyfriend, Finn, with a video of the stakeout shooting. Couple that with some dirty cops, and Riley’s freedom is certainly not guaranteed.
As secrets come to light, causing past and present to collide, Riley must make a choice that will change everything.
With lightning-fast action and well-written dialog, Map of My Escape delivers a thrilling tale guaranteed to keep you reading until the last page.
Cheryl L. Reed is the author of the nonfiction book Unveiled: The Hidden Lives of Nuns and the novel Poison Girls, which won the Chicago Writers’ Association Book of the Year. A former staff editor and reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times and other publications, Reed‘s stories have won multiple awards, including Harvard’s Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting. She has twice been awarded a U.S. Fulbright Scholar fellowship by the State Department, first in Ukraine and then in Central Asia. She splits her time between Washington, DC and her home near the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia.
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Nice review. I absolutely love this book!!!
Thanks, Amy for reading and for the thoughtful review!