Life Sentences by Laura Lippman

Cassandra Fallows has become famous as a writer by penning two books about her life. After publishing a novel that's not well-received, she wonders what her next project will be. Thinking that she's best suited to non-fiction, she decides to frame her next book around an acquaitance from grade school who, years later, was jailed because she wouldn't speak about her young son who went missing and was presumed dead. The woman, Calliope Jenkins, has disappeared from the Baltimore area. Cassandra knows she has to visit childhood friends whom she hasn't seen in years and who might resent her for how she portrayed them in her two memoirs. Growing up in the 1960's, there was also the racial divide that, at times, separated white Cassandra from her African-American friends--Donna, Tisha, and Fatima. Researching the book causes Cassandra again to think about her past and to question her memory. Will finding Calliope and uncovering her truths help Cassandra lay everything to rest or cause pain to all those involved?