Sunburn

The novel opens on a Sunday evening in early June in Belleville, Delaware, a dying small town 45 miles inland from the beach. A man notices a sunburned redhead at the High-Ho, a run-down bar on the old highway, puzzled by what she is doing in a town where strangers rarely stop. He introduces himself as Adam Bosk. She is guarded, revealing only that she lives in Belleville "now." That night, Adam follows her to the Valley View motel and checks into room 3. The following evening, she gives her name as "Polly Costello."

Two days earlier, Polly walked away from her husband, Gregg, and their three-year-old daughter, Jani, during a beach vacation in Fenwick, Delaware. Known to Gregg as Pauline, she planned the departure in advance, typing a note and withdrawing half the couple's savings. She intended to head west but ended up in Belleville when a ride with a stranger turned threatening. She chats up Cath, the barmaid at the High-Ho, impresses the bar's owner, Mr. C, and is hired as a waitress. Gregg, furious that Polly left before he could, hires Sue Snead, a private investigator who traces Polly to Belleville.

Adam is not what he seems: He is a private investigator who originally planned to approach Gregg at the beach, but Polly's sudden departure forced him to follow her. When the High-Ho's line cook is injured, Adam, who has culinary training, lands the cooking job. He begins sleeping with Cath to maintain distance from Polly while provoking her interest.

Polly and Adam circle each other. She asks him to drive her to an auction; when she loses the bidding on an iron bed, Adam secretly buys it from the winning bidder. She delays, not wanting the gesture to feel transactional. They come together after Gregg arrives in Belleville, confronts Polly at the bar, and ambushes her and Adam on the street with a gun. Adam violently disarms him. That night, Polly takes Adam upstairs. They begin a secret affair. Polly manipulates Adam into a cold breakup with Cath, then consoles Cath, securing her role as Cath's supposed friend and Adam's secret lover.

Alternating perspectives reveal the full scope of deception. Adam's client is Irving Lowenstein, a 63-year-old insurance broker from Baltimore who claims Polly swindled money from her daughter's life insurance payout. Irving has his own criminal past: Years earlier, he set a fire behind a rental property to drive out tenants, killing three people. Burton Ditmars, Polly's first husband, was a corrupt arson investigator who coerced Irving into a partnership. Alongside a drug dealer, they brokered life insurance policies on young men who frequently died on the streets. A 1986 fire on Paca Street killed a 15-year-old girl and her baby.

Polly's backstory emerges in flashback. Born Polly Costello in Dundalk, a working-class Baltimore neighborhood, she caught the eye of Ditmars at 14. Five years older, he raped her that summer. Pregnant at 17, she married him. After a miscarriage, she had Joy, who has severe cerebral palsy from oxygen deprivation during delivery. Ditmars grew increasingly violent, threatening to kill both Polly and Joy. Inspired by James M. Cain's noir novels, Polly studied anatomy, bought a butcher knife, and stabbed Ditmars through the heart while he slept. She was convicted, but the governor later commuted her sentence. After prison, she changed her name, met Gregg, and married again.

Years earlier, Polly had seduced Irving into helping her secure a million-dollar life insurance policy on Ditmars. When Ditmars died, the payout went to Joy's care. Irving later learned from Polly's lawyer, Barry Forshaw, that she had won a $3.3 million medical malpractice settlement for Joy's birth injuries. After legal fees, $1.8 million remained, held in Forshaw's name to hide it from Gregg. Irving hired Adam to find the money.

Polly makes several trips to Baltimore, visiting Joy at a pediatric hospital and consulting Forshaw. She learns that Irving knows about her settlement. Adam follows her on one trip by taxi but loses her trail.

Cath discovers Polly's criminal past through her brother-in-law Jim, a Delaware state trooper, and tries to blackmail her into leaving town. On the last night of August, after the deadline passes, Polly spends the night with Adam at the Valley View. An explosion destroys her apartment during the night; the body found in the rubble is Cath's, and the death is ruled an accident.

Adam wonders whether Polly killed Cath but cannot bring himself to ask. He alibied her, though he was asleep when she arrived. Polly visits Irving and tricks him into confirming details about the Paca Street fire. Irving is arrested and charged with murder for the 1986 arson. News reports link Irving to the Belleville explosion; Adam realizes his own surveillance reports may have given Irving Polly's address.

When the High-Ho can no longer support a cook through winter, Adam returns to Baltimore, visiting Polly on weekends. Following Forshaw's advice, Polly agrees to all of Gregg's divorce demands, letting him overreach before the hidden settlement surfaces. That night, she confirms Mr. C keeps a gun in his desk.

Adam buys an engagement ring and plans to propose on Christmas Eve, but arrives in Belleville to find Polly gone on a mysterious errand. When she does not return for days, he visits Irving in jail. Irving reveals that Polly learned months ago that Adam is a PI. He discloses that Joy is Polly's biological daughter and that Polly holds $1.8 million. Irving insists Polly has been playing Adam and denies arranging the explosion.

Adam returns to find Polly in the darkened High-Ho with Mr. C's gun aimed at the door. She has secretly taken Jani from Gregg's house and hidden the child at the Valley View. She confirms she knows Adam is a PI and plans to flee with Jani once the divorce is final. Adam tells her Gregg has rights as a father. She deflects his question about Cath, asking whether he thinks she would abandon her child.

Adam plays "I'd Like to Get to Know You" on the jukebox, but the song is cut short when Gregg slams through the door and charges at Polly. She dives for the gun. The three become entangled in a violent struggle, and the scene ends without resolving who fires the weapon.

An epilogue set in 2017 reveals the aftermath. Polly, now in her late fifties, lives in Baltimore with both daughters. Jani has graduated from law school, and Joy, now 36, communicates through an iPad. Gregg was convicted of murdering Adam and executed; a belated police report on his stalking of Polly supported the case. Polly found Adam's ring after his death and keeps it for Jani.

In private reflection, Polly reveals the full truth: Cath attacked and tried to strangle her, and Polly killed Cath in self-defense by driving her head into the metal table. She staged the gas leak, knowing her history meant no one would believe a second claim of self-defense. Irving died before his trial. Polly acknowledges that framing him for the explosion was unjust, though his crimes were real. At the market, a man sings "I'd Like to Get to Know You." Polly declines, thinking of Adam, and drives home to her daughters under arching blue skies.