Sundial

The newest from Ward (The Last House on Needless Street) explores familial bonds, lingering traumas, and violent legacies. Rob tries to be a good wife and mother to her daughters, despite her abusive, philandering husband and his constant power games, but Rob notices daughter Callie’s peculiar behaviors and is horrified by what she’s done to her younger sister Annie. To help Callie and save Annie, Rob takes Callie to the desert, to Sundial, her now-abandoned childhood home. While Rob remembers what events at Sundial led her to what she must do now, young Callie worries that this will be her last trip. The story, with its many twists and turns, alternates between Callie and Rob and jumps between past and present. Readers will never be entirely sure what is going on until the end but will nevertheless be drawn into this book’s inescapable narrative web. Narrator Katherine Fenton imbues each syllable with tension and unease.