Absolutely compelling story told from two perspectives. Cylin was 9 when her father, a hard-nosed cop in a small Maine town was shot in the face at point blank range on his way to work. She recounts the terrible effect it had on her family (mother, 2 brothers and live-in older female cousin Kelly) when they all feared he would die from his wounds and then the horrible realisation when he lived that this was in fact a "hit" gone wrong; and that soon, the person who came after John might come after the rest of the family. The second perspective is that of John - how his anger and need for revenge kept him alive and then how he slowly saw what was happening to his family as they lived in fear and how he realised what he was feeling. Throughout the whole novel, you feel for John and Cylin and their hardship; but my greatest concern was for John's poor wife Polly who had to hold the entire family together, become the breadwinner and (because of her nurse's training) carry out the care of John while he was in hospital. A riveting read that is suitable for older readers due to the number of "f" words and the graphic descriptions of the violence that John suffered. Highly recommended.

In this book, daughter Cylin and father John share the story of what happened to their family in 1979 when John, a police officer, was shot in the head. John wasn't killed, but the bottom of his jaw was shot off and he had a long, painful recovery ahead of him. Worse was the fact that he was certain that the man behind his attempted murder was a local criminal who thought he had the police force in his pocket. John refused to give in to this man's threats and as a result he almost lost his life and his family was put in danger.

The really neat thing about this book is that you get two different perspectives. John writes his story - his painful recovery and crippling anger and frustration at an investigation that went much too slowly. Cylin writes her story - constant fear that her dad might die or that someone might be coming to kill her too, social ostracism because police officers followed her wherever she went.

I found it totally compelling and didn't want to put it down. Highly recommended for high schoolers and adults. ( )

This is a heartbreaking and yet inspirational story about a horrendous act of violence that drove a family to the point of breaking and caused them to go into hiding for their protection. Despite the horror of what was done, this family did not break and managed to go on to not just survive, but thrive. As this is a father-dauther memoir, the POV swings between the father's perspective and that of the daughter, Cylin. I have not liked this dual perspective in other stories, but here it works well, especially since Cylin was only 9 at the time of the incident, it is good to have an adult's perspective. This book came across as one of healing. ( )