The story begins with a 68-year-old woman named Kathleen riding on a New York City subway. She receives a text alert telling her that CNN has reported a bomb in the subway system. She's close to where the bomber has set off the bomb, killing himself and at least 48 other people. She escapes and ends up walking seven miles home to her apartment in a building she owns.

The bombing sets up a flurry of investigations to determine the bomber's name, motive and if he was working alone. Once identified as Jackson Mattingly they mystery only deepens. He doesn't seem to have any motive for his actions.

Emily Silverman is one of the mayor's press secretaries. She also lives in the building Kathleen owns with her almost-three-year-old daughter Skye. Unknown to her is the fact that Kathleen is her grandmother who has manipulated events through a fake Facebook friend to get Emily her job at City Hall and her apartment in order to get to know her granddaughter and great-granddaughter.

Kathleen was convicted of manslaughter and spent some years in prison. She and her husband were both drug addicts. She is the one who brought her husband the drugs that killed him. After getting out of prison there weren't a lot of job opportunities which led her to become a madam. She is now many-years retired. She lost her daughter Lauren through all of the events of her trial and incarceration, Lauren, who had drug problems of her own, felt abandoned and has spent the past thirty years with very mixed feelings about the woman she wrote out of her life.

Now, it seems that the past has made a reappearance when one of the women who worked for her asked to see her but never arrived only to be found murdered and dumped at a b each famous as a dumping ground for prostitutes. Emily was a witness to the woman's near arrival at Kathleen's when she saw the woman get into a car outside the apartment building. The police seem to have written off what looks like the death of one more prostitute but Emily and Kathleen begin to investigate.

Then a lawyer who was also a former client of Kathleen's first tells Kathleen to back off the investigation and then is supposed to have committed suicide. This leads Kathleen to believe that there is more to know about her friend's past and the mysterious Client 13 who was the only thing they had in common.

After an arson attack on her building which nearly costs Kathleen, Emily and Skye their lives, police arrest Kathleen for being the arsonist. Her bank accounts have been drained and evidence is discovered that she's the one who started the fires as a way of claiming the insurance. All she and Emily know is that there is a powerful and connected enemy out there who doesn't want his secrets revealed.

The story is told from multiple viewpoints including both Kathleen and Emily and also Jackson Mattingly and the mysterious hidden figure who is at the center of the events. Lauren's husband Carl who is an FBI Agent currently on medical leave fighting MS and Lauren herself get chances to be viewpoint characters.

I really enjoyed this twisty tale about the past coming to haunt the present, about the hidden parts of wealth and politics, and about secrets. It was filled with so much tension that I needed to sometimes put it down and walk away to decompress. Fans of intense mysteries will enjoy this one. ( )