Too Strong is an upmarket suspense grounded in themes of mental illness, loss and family secrets. Currently in revision.
As a child, Katrina learned to bury feelings of abandonment, abuse and shame. Now as a tough businesswoman, she plans to make amends for her family’s multi-generational history of mental illness. But when her plans are suspiciously sabotaged and she encounters a disturbingly familiar stranger, a cascade of life-threatening events force her to finally open the Pandora’s box of her feelings, to save her life.
From a dark stranger to reappearance of a recurrent childhood nightmare, anonymous threats, and destruction of her son’s tombstone, events escalate to deaths of people associated with her. Yet she forges on toward her mission, disregarding risk and dismissing fear. After a near-fatal attack, it takes the urging of friends and attention of the FBI agent determined to protect her to finally unearth her memories and feelings, revealing who is threatening her. She discovers whose ashes are really in the small urn on her mantel, answers to family secrets, and resolution of guilt. In the end, Katrina finds forgiveness and love, and realizes that being too strong can be a weakness.
Too Strong is set in current-day Cambridge MA. The antagonist is revealed in a surprising conclusion, and Katrina attains peace with her past. The rapidly-paced narrative includes occasional poetry, recipes, and concludes with book club questions.
In the vein of Lisa Jewell and Claire MacIntosh, Too Strong plumbs the depths of the human psyche. Its character arc may appeal to fans of Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. Its themes of mental health and family dysfunction can have broad appeal for book clubs.
CONTENT WARNING: One scene in the book involves an attempted rape (nothing at all graphic) and another includes a third party relating lurid details of someone’s murder.