Just finished reading...

Invisible Boy* by Cornelia Read.

It's 1990. Madeline Dare and her husband Dean are sharing an apartment in New York with Madeline's sister Pagan and her friend Sue. Madeline is thrilled to be living in the city again, even though the only job she can find is taking phone orders for a book catalog.

At a party, she meets a distant cousin, Cate, who invites her to help clean up a derelict family cemetery. A few days later, while clearing brush in the cemetery, Maddie comes across the skeleton of what appears to be a small child, with crushed ribs. They contact the police, and eventually it's determined that the skeleton is that of a 3-year-old boy whose mother claimed he had run away about a year earlier.

The boy's mother and her boyfriend are charged with his death, and Maddie is one of the chief witnesses in the trial.

While the trial is at the center of the story, we also spend a lot of time with Maddie, her family and friends, and learn a great deal more about her background.
Abuse is a major theme: we meet Astrid, college friend of Maddie's who hints about being abused by her husband. Pagan also tells her sister about being abused when they were children.

The subject matter made this a tough book to read. The brilliant writing made it even tougher to put down. I read it in three sittings, stopping only when I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer.

I think Maddie and Dean have an interesting future, and am very much looking forward to reading about it.

*Library book.