Dead Center - Hardcover

eemed accidental, a respected pediatrician is charged with murdering a man who had been his friend. In those intervening years, the pediatrician, Dr. Benjamin Weber, has married his friend’s widow and adopted their two children. And during those years, he has proven himself to be a devoted father and spouse as well as a trusted physician. Dr. Weber pleads innocent, and his wife believes him. His grown daughters Laura and Lin believe him. Or do they? As the novel evolves, the mystery at its center deepens into an exploration of divided loyalties and precarious family relationships, of children’s need to believe in conflict with their desire for truth. This suspenseful novel combines elements of the conventional murder mystery and courtroom drama, but goes beyond these into that greater drama of the human heart in conflict with itself. Inspired by an actual case, D e a d Center is really an ancient story in contemporary guise, one wherein betrayal blurs with love, evil with good, hatred with forgiveness, and guilt with innocence. It is also the story of a family that has been wrenched apart by loss for a second time but not, finally, destroyed.

J O A N N A H I G G I N S lives with her husband and two children in upstate New York and northeastern Pennsylvania. She has taught literature and writing at colleges and universities in Michigan, England, Pennsylvania, New York, and Hawaii. Her fiction and plays have received recognition and awards, including a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship. Of her first novel, A S o l d i e r ’s Book, Kirkus said, “An impressive debut, complex and penetrating, a moving first novel and a notable contribution.”