BLANCHARD, ALICE — Darkness Peering

New York, Bantam Books. 1999, Uncorrected Proof. (ISBN: 0553111531) Soft cover. Book, The dead girl lay faceup on the edge of the pond, a snake coiled in the muddy hollow of one arm. For Police Chief Nalen Storrow, it was a shocking reminder of the violence he thought he'd left behind when he moved his wife and children to Flowering Dogwood, Maine, a town where no one locks their doors. And now Storrow's search for the truth leads to a chilling possibility..the murderer might be his own son, Billy. Eighteen years later the murder of the girl in the pond has never been solved. Now a different cop is obsessed with the case--Rachel Storrow, Billy's grown sister. But no sooner does Rachel reopen the investigation than another young woman disappears. Once again Billy is a suspect, though far from the only suspect in town. The harder Rachel peers behind Flowering Dogwood's picture-perfect facade--at the center of which is the respected Winfield School for the Blind and Special Needs--the more the mystery deepens. A cunning psychopath is moving undetected through Rachel's hometown, taking her on a journey of suspicion, doubt, and bone-deep fear. Plunged into a world where darkness follows even the innocent, Rachel must unearth secrets that span decades and face a staggering personal truth. 339p. Publisher's PR card laid in. As New.