| Origin Contributor(s): Abu-Jaber, Diana (Author) |
|
 |
ISBN: 0393331555 ISBN-13: 9780393331554 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company OUR PRICE: $25.60 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: May 2008 Annotation: A fingerprint expert's investigation of a series of crib deaths leads her back to the mystery of her own childhood. Lena is a fingerprint expert at a crime lab in the small city of Syracuse, New York, where winters are cold and deep. Suddenly, a series of crib deaths--indistinguishable from SIDS except for the fevered testimony of one distraught mother with connections in high places--draws the attention of the police and the national media and raises the possibility of the inconceivable: could there be a serial infant murderer on the loose? Orphaned as a child, out of place as an adult, gifted with delicate and terrifying powers of intuition, Lena finds herself playing a critical role in the case. But then there is the mystery of her own childhood to solve....Could the improbable deaths of a half-dozen babies be somehow connected to her own improbable survival? The beauty and originality of Diana Abu-Jaber's writing are here accompanied by deft, page-turning narrative tension and atmosphere, tugging the reader to an unforgettable conclusion. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Mystery & Detective - Women Sleuths - Fiction | Literary - Fiction | Thrillers - Suspense |
| Dewey: FIC |
| Physical Information: 0.93" H x 5.67" W x 8.29" (0.69 lbs) 402 pages |
| Themes: - Sex & Gender - Feminine |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Secretly, in her heart of hearts, Lena Dawson hides the strangest of beliefs about her childhood. Hiding behind a cool competence as a superb fingerprint analyst in a crime lab in snowy Syracuse, New York, she feels totally out of place in the ordinary world of human interaction. Especially since the controlling husband who guided and protected her, then cheated and left her (though now he wants her back). Her uncanny ability to read a crime scene draws her into investigating a mysterious series of crib deaths--but ultimately the most difficult puzzle she must solve is the one of her own origins. Diana Abu-Jaber, a "gifted and graceful writer" (Chicago Tribune), masterfully "transcends formula" (Kirkus Reviews) as "the tension of Origin escalates, shaped as much by beautifully nuanced prose as menacing events" (New York Daily News). |
Contributor Bio(s): Abu-Jaber, Diana: - Diana Abu-Jaber is the award-winning author of four novels, including Crescent, and two memoirs, Life Without a Recipe and The Language of Baklava. She and her family divide time between Miami, Florida, and Portland, Oregon. |