Missing Mom: A Novel

A sudden, brutal crime shatters an independent woman’s world—and forces an unsparing reckoning with grief, family, and herself.

Nikki Eaton, single, thirty-one, sexually liberated, and economically self-supporting, has never particularly thought of herself as a daughter.

Yet, following the unexpected loss of her mother, she undergoes a remarkable transformation during a tumultuous year that brings stunning horror, sorrow, illumination, wisdom, and even—from an unexpected source—a nurturing love.

Living thirty miles away in Chautauqua Falls and writing for a regional paper, she had long kept her family at a comfortable distance. Her mother’s violent death shatters that detachment, pulling Nikki back to Deer Creek Drive.

There, clashing with her sister Clare over clearing out the house, she retreats into her girlhood room with an orphaned cat. Facing the delays of an impending murder trial, Nikki uncovers hidden letters revealing a mother far more complex than she remembered.

In the wake of Gwen Eaton’s murder, two sisters must confront the woman they thought they knew.

• Mother-Daughter Relationships: As Nikki combs through the artifacts of 43 Deer Creek Drive, she uncovers the private heartaches and secret romances her mother kept hidden behind a cheerful suburban smile.
• Sibling Dynamics: Nikki and her older sister Clare must navigate their volatile history and clashing lifestyles while wrestling with lawyers, court hearings, and the painful division of their childhood home.
• Small Town Setting: Set in upstate New York’s Chautauqua Valley, the close-knit community of Mt. Ephraim becomes a suffocating fishbowl where neighbours gossip and a persistent homicide detective offers an unlikely alliance.
• Also by This Author: Blonde, Carthage and Middle Age: A Romance.

The book, Missing Mom: A Novel [Bulk, Wholesale, Quantity] ISBN#9780060816223 in Paperback by Joyce Carol Oates may be ordered in bulk quantities. Minimum starts at 25 copies. Availability based on publisher status and quantity being ordered.