Scent of Magnolia

"A riveting new family drama by the queen of southern fiction." Scout Montgomery has turned her search for her missing brother into a career. She finds her professional life as a homicide detective meaningful, but her personal life is nonexistent. She's stuck in the past. In order to move on, she must find closure. When she returns home to Alabama for the death of a childhood friend, she uses her acquired investigative skills to discover new clues concerning her brother's disappearance. Beneath Kate Baldwin's public persona as fashion designer lies a young woman carrying a heavy burden of guilt. Her relationship issues and inability to find happiness stem from the secret she's been keeping for nearly two decades. She yearns to reveal the truth-an unexpected trip home to her childhood home in Alabama provides the opportunity-but doing so will destroy the lives of the people she cares about the most. June Montgomery is married to a prominent politician, lives in a magazine-worthy home, and leads an active social life. But she lives in constant fear the past will come back to haunt her. She approaches Scout's homecoming with trepidation. Her daughter has the power to unravel the seams of her intricately crafted lies. When family and friends reunite, old hostilities resurface and the discovery of new evidence regarding Ford's disappearance endangers lives.