For the first eighteen years of her life, Rose Gold Watts believed she was seriously ill. She was allergic to everything, used a wheelchair and practically lived at the hospital.
Neighbors did all they could, holding fundraisers and offering shoulders to cry on, but no matter how many doctors, tests, or surgeries, no one could figure out what was wrong with Rose Gold.
Turns out her mom, Patty Watts, was just a really good liar.
After serving five years in prison, Patty gets out with nowhere to go and begs her daughter to take her in. The entire community is shocked when Rose Gold says yes.
Patty insists all she wants is to reconcile their differences. She says she’s forgiven Rose Gold for turning her in and testifying against her. But Rose Gold knows her mother. Patty Watts always settles a score.
Unfortunately for Patty, Rose Gold is no longer her weak little darling…
And she’s waited such a long time for her mother to come home.
Select Reviews
Ingenious... a maelstrom of a suspense story.
Washington Post
Pacey and vivid, this is a delicate, merciless probing of a topic as unsettling as it is intriguing, with no pat answers.
The Guardian
With genuine menace seeping from every twist and turn, the two central characters inhabit every page with captivating ferocity, and the denouement is worthy of Patricia Highsmith at her finest: quite superb.
Daily Mail
There is nary a false move in the novel, which is streaked with mordant wit.
Chicago Tribune
More reviewsIn her crisp, chilling and original debut, Wrobel serves up a twisted mother-daughter relationship in this expertly plotted, sensational tale of obsession, forgiveness and revenge. Beautifully written and endlessly haunting, The Recovery of Rose Gold announces the arrival of a new star in the genre.
Waterstones