Introduction

Rural Michigan, 1934. During the throes of the Great Depression Polly marries for money. After her husband Sam dies in a bizarre farm accident, new bride Polly assumes she is set to pursue her dream of opening a hat-making business. Instead, she becomes the prime suspect in Sam’s murder. Secrets abound and even Polly’s family can’t figure out the truth.

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Excerpt

Having no choice, I started up the long, tall ladder that ran up the exterior of the silo to the small covered opening. I got up five or six rungs before my fear of heights kicked in. My body started shaking and I willed myself not to look down. I kept putting one foot above the other. The towel around my right arm had loosened. I let it fall to the ground, not wanting to let go with my other arm.

Every move required my mind telling my arms and legs to move. I was shaking so hard my hands could hardly grip the ladder. You can do this, I told myself. You can. You can.

“Keep going.” His voice was piercing.

I willed my feet to move up the ladder. My body convulsed. I was about five rungs from the top when I stopped. Reason told me I needed to quit shaking and get my body under control or I would fall. Then it occurred to me. He wasn’t going to push me into the soft silage. He was going to knock me off the top of the ladder down to the hard earth below. I would be meeting the same horrific fate as Johanna.

My shaking worsened, but my feet remained frozen on the rung. Right foot up, I told myself. But it didn’t go up. Nor did my left. For the first time, I noticed I was panting and I seemed to be losing my grip on the upper rung.

“Come on, come on,” Sam shouted in irritation. He was right behind me.

“I can’t stop shaking and my feet won’t move.”

“Well, you climbed all this way; you can make it up a few more steps.”

“I can’t. Remember, I’m afraid of heights,” I yelled back. “Besides, when I get to the top, I won’t be able to get that board off the window.”

“That’s why I’m carrying the crowbar,” he growled. “When you get to the top, I’ll hand it to you. The board’s hinged on top. You just need to pull out the U staples on the bottom.”

“I want the crowbar now,” I answered. I’d whack him with it and then drop it to the ground.

I could feel Sam pushing on me.

“Move over,” he snarled, pushing me to the right so that only my left foot was on the rung below. Fear pulsed through my body. I dangled off the ladder as he climbed up beside me and hustled to the top. I panicked. I couldn’t pull my body back. I willed my right leg to move back but it didn’t budge. I couldn’t get control of either arm or leg.

When Sam reached the top rung, he started pulling out the U staples with the crowbar. In that moment, by sheer will power, I pulled my whole torso back onto the ladder, gripping the next rung, shuddering. Sam was still yanking the staples from the window above.

I was only five steps from the top. I heard a creaking noise and looked up again. Sam had finished opening the window. He had climbed in the small opening and disappeared. It was too late to push him in and I was still five rungs below, shaking.

“Goddammit,” he cried out. “Where’s all the silage? Polly, get the hell up here and help me get these plates.”

“It’s too high,” I yelled back. “I can’t move.”

“There’s no time for that nonsense. I’ve got five double sets of plates to get outta here.”

“Grab the first one and then hand it to me,” I yelled back.

“No, I’m throwing them on to the silage.”?I heard some clatter.?“One,” he yelled in victory. “Two.”

I had to do something. Either I would force myself to finish the five steps and hope that Sam would spare me or I could risk falling off the ladder while going down.

Silence.

I heard two blood-curdling cries from Sam, then more silence. I had no idea how I did it, but I pulled myself up the remaining five rungs and peered in. Everything was black inside. I flung my body through the window and clung on, finding purchase for my feet on an interior ladder. view abbreviated excerpt only...

Discussion Questions

a. The book is set in 1934 during the throes of the Great Depression. How much do “hard times” impact the characters and their actions?
b. Much of the setting is on two adjacent farms. How is the plot intertwined with the rural setting?
c. Polly’s letters to her mother at the beginning of the book may not be entirely truthful. What is your reaction? Do you prefer reliable or unreliable narrators?
d. Thematic elements include secrecy and deception, agency, family, and community. Discuss how each plays out in the novel.
e. How is the concept of “veils” represented in the book? What veils become lifted during the course of the story? Does the reader actually see Polly Forrest unveiled at the book’s conclusion?

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