Sweet Mary
A Novel
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
In this mesmerizing debut novel by two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Liz Balmaseda, one woman’s hunger for justice becomes a journey into darkness—and a punishing, soul-searching test of priorities.
Liz Balmaseda is a twotime winner of the Pulitzer Prize, an author, screenwriter, and a writer for The Palm Beach Post. With Sweet Mary, a taut, emotional story about the cost of love and revenge, she adds “gifted novelist” to her list of accomplishments.
Dulce Maria “Mary” Guevara is a woman with nothing left to lose. Wrongly accused of being a cocaine queen, she has lost her job, her reputation, and—worst of all—custody of her son. Even after the charges are dropped, suspicion lingers. Desperate to get it all back, she takes what she considers the only path open to her: she goes on the hunt for the real drug queen. Unfortunately, the one person she is sure will be able to help her is the one person she wants least to see again: Joe Pratts, her exfiancé, a man whose connections to the drug world once ended their relationship.
Trying not to fall again for Joe is just the beginning of Mary’s challenges, however. The drug queen she is targeting is safely ensconced in the suburbs, hiding behind the façade of domestic tranquility. And taking her down means doing something that strikes Mary a little too close to home: she would have to leave the drug queen’s young daughter without a mother.
Sweet Mary is a gripping, heart-rending story with a noir soul and plenty of surprising twists— an assured debut from a writer with tremendous experience and talent.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Near the start of Balmaseda's suspense-lite debut, gun-toting DEA agents burst into the house of Dulce Maria "Mary" Guevara, a divorced Miami, Fla., realtor, and arrest her, having mistaken Mary for cocaine queen bee Maria Guevara Portilla. The charges are eventually dropped, but the stigma remains. After Mary's boss puts her on mandatory leave and her ex-husband persuades a judge to give him full custody of their young son, Mary embarks on an improbable journey to do what the DEA can't: track down "Bad Mary" to clear her own name for good. While the author has twice won the Pulitzer Prize for journalism, Balmaseda can't resist chick lit worthy twists and turns, including a breathless encounter with a high school sweetheart and a come-to-Jesus moment when Sweet Mary meets Bad Mary's young daughter. Screenplay-style scene intros and uninspired character development don't help.