Gone by Morning

June 1, 2021
Two women who share a relationship so secret that one of them doesn't know about it hunt a killer who will stop at nothing to preserve his own secret. Even under normal circumstances, nobody much cares when a call girl is killed. So the NYPD's indifference to the murder of Sharon Williams is no surprise, especially since her corpse is found the morning after out-of-town sociopath Jackson Mattingly plants a pair of bombs in the subway stations at Times Square and Penn Station that leave dozens dead and paralyze the city. But even though she barely avoided becoming a victim of the Subway Bomber herself, retired madam Kathleen Harris cares more about Sharon, a former employee who called her wanting to meet shortly before she was spirited away from outside the building Kathleen owns. She asks Emily Silverman, a neighbor in her apartment building whom she helped get a plum job in Mayor Derick Sullivan's press office, to find out more about the case. But there's something Kathleen isn't telling Emily: that she's Emily's grandmother, a one-time crack addict who spent five years in prison. Emily doesn't know about Kathleen because her own mother, divorce attorney Lauren Cintron, slammed the door on the mother she's convinced abandoned her and doesn't know Kathleen has wormed her way into Emily's life. As Kathleen and Emily struggle to trace Sharon's last movements, they have no idea that her death is about to lead to a high-profile crime that will make headlines all over the city and send Kathleen back to jail. Mary Higgins Clark with teeth, even if the biggest surprises come early on.

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June 21, 2021
Early in Miller’s intricately plotted debut, Kathleen Harris, a 68-year-old retired madam, escapes unharmed from a Times Square subway bombing. That night at her Upper Manhattan apartment, Kathleen receives a call from Sharon Williams, a friend who used to work for her. Sharon asks if she can drop by, but she never arrives, and the next day her body is found in Queens. A neighbor of Kathleen’s, Emily Silverman, tells Kathleen she saw Sharon near their building stopped by a man. Sharon then got into his car, seemingly voluntarily. A few nights later, a raging fire, ruled to be arson, devastates Emily and Kathleen’s building. The two women begin to wonder whether Sharon’s murder and the fire are somehow related. Their efforts to uncover what’s going on put their lives in danger. Emily’s discovery of shocking secrets in her family’s past raises the tension, as do passages from the bomber’s viewpoint. The twists and turns will keep readers spellbound. Miller is off to a promising start. Agent: Susan Ginsburg, Writers House.

Starred review from August 1, 2021

DEBUT When a bomb explodes in a New York City subway station, it changes the lives of three women. Ex-madam Kathleen Harris, 68, survives the event and walks home to the apartment building she owns. City Hall press officer Emily Silverman, 26, and her young daughter Skye are tenants in Kathleen's building. As Emily returns home the night of the bombing, she sees a woman getting into a car with a man. When that woman is found murdered, Emily recognizes her from a photo: it's Sharon, a sex worker who once worked for Kathleen. Emily and Kathleen stir up trouble as they investigate Sharon's murder. Soon Kathleen's apartment building blows up, and she, Emily, and Skye barely escape; Kathleen is then arrested for arson, and her bank account is wiped out. Emily's determined to help Kathleen and asks her divorce lawyer mother Lauren Cintron to take her case. Lauren recognizes Kathleen immediately and is reluctant to defend the mother she thinks abandoned her as a child. Emily never knew that Kathleen was her grandmother, who had spent five years in prison for homicide. Emily, Lauren, and Kathleen are so entangled that they pose a threat to a powerful political figure with connections to the subway bomber. VERDICT Miller's background as a lawyer in New York brings an authenticity to this intense, intricately plotted thriller. The politics and menacing atmosphere combine in a promising debut.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

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