Why you must read Mary McPhee’s Flowers in a Window
Andrea Clarke is an interior decorator with a great talent for visualization, that is, looking at scenes and imagining something different. But nothing has prepared her for the scene she finds upon returning home from a business trip, eager to tell her older, sophisticated husband, Maurice, she’s pregnant. She finds Maurice with half his face blown away, gun in hand. Stories in the media suggest he was involved in shady business dealings. Traumatized and wanting to protect the health of her unborn child, Andrea “sees” an odd place of refuge: a simple, upstairs bedroom in a derelict old farmhouse, furnished with a narrow metal bed, a rag rug, a small table before a window, and a vase of yellow flowers. She is obviously recalling a picture from a decorating book she’s seen perhaps years ago. The room really exists in the rural Midwest, and Andrea is able to restore it exactly as in the picture. There, in serenity she awaits the birth of her child. But one day, a stranger comes along to shatter her peace. He tells her the unrecognizable suicide she found was not her husband, but his brother, a homeless man. He paints a vivid picture and Andrea, all too vulnerable, “sees” it. She must return to the city to find the truth. In a deserted building inhabited by homeless people, she comes face-to-face with one of the men. What genre is this? Tell us about Andrea. Have you written any other books that we should read next? Tell us about yourself. Do you have a website? How easily do new storylines come to you? If we give you four random words – Man, Woman, Airport, Darkness – can you give us a brief storyline? You should publish it! What do you have planned next?
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