Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books, 1997. dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - The author's unusual first novel, nominated for the Edgar, winner of the Orange Prize and a New York Times Notable book of the year. "In the summer of 1972, in a suburb of Washington, D.C., the body of a twelve-year-old boy was found near a shopping mall. He had been sexually molested and then murdered. The worst crime came later. . . As the adult Marsha looks back on that summer and recounts the events, she sees herself as an almost fanatically vigilant little girl edging as close as possible to every disturbance. When the summer dragged on and on without the police solving the murder, Marsha felt compelled to put the "evidence" she'd been collecting to use. How do crimes that we witness or commit as children continue to haunt us years later?" INSCRIBED on the title page and dated in the year of publication. 285 pp. ISBN: 1-565121651.