Light from a Distant Star

A gripping comingofage novel with a murder at its heart and a heroine as unforgettable as Harper Lees Scout Light from a Distant Star is the moving and powerful story of innocence and betrayal told in the endearingly wise voice of thirteenyearold Nellie Peck. It is early summer, and her beloved fathers business is failing. Her mother has to go back to work, and Nellies older half sister has launched a troubling search for her birth father. Forced to take care of her shy younger brother, Nellie is determined to make himand herselftoughen up. Three strangers enter Nellies protected life: mysterious and brutish Max Devaney works in her grandfathers junkyard, the thieving Bucky Saltonstall has just arrived from New York City, and Dolly Bedelia, a young stripper who rents the small apartment in the back of the Pecks house, becomes the titillating focus of Nellies eavesdropping. Nellie is justly proud of her own infallible lie detector until violence erupts in her young life and she is silenced by fear and scandal. The truth as she believes it is shocking and unthinkable, and with everyones eyes riveted on her in the courtroom, Nellie finds herself compromised by moral confusion. No one will listen, no one believes her, and a mans life hangs in the balance. A stunning evocation of innocence lost, Light from a Distant Star stands as one of the most engaging novels yet from the bestselling author of Songs in Ordinary Time.