Flirting with Pete: A Novel

In this “dramatic and satisfying” (The Houston Chronicle) New York Times bestseller, a female psychologist becomes involved in a mysterious case history of a troubled young woman after finding a journal in the Boston townhouse recently bequeathed to her by her estranged father.

Casey Ellis is in a lonely place in her life. Her mother remains in a comatose state several years after a terrible accident when Casey is rocked by the news that her estranged father has suddenly died.

Although she never met him, she held onto the hope that someday her father—the celebrated psychologist Dr. Cornelis Unger—might reach out to her. So it comes as a shock when she learns that she has inherited his beautiful townhouse in Boston’s exclusive Beacon Hill.

Sensing that her father had an ulterior motive in leaving her the property, Casey searches the house and finds a strange, incomplete manuscript. It tells the harrowing story of a young woman named Jenny who was abused by her parents. When her mother was murdered, her father was sent to prison. After only six years in jail, he is about to be released, and Jenny knows she has to escape. Her way out appears in the form of a man named Pete who shows up on his motorcycle and offers to whisk her away.

Convinced the story is true, Casey sets out to find the rest of the pages and help Jenny. With the discovery of each additional segment, she learns more about Jenny, about herself, and about Cornelius Unger. Will it be the key to understanding not only her father’s past but also that of the man Casey has come to love?

Moving, highly emotional, and filled with family secrets and psychological suspense, Flirting with Pete is “another ‘I didn’t want to put it down’ novel from Delinsky” (Library Journal).