Daughter of Deep Silence

Gr 8 Up—Frances Mace is on a luxury cruise liner, Persephone, with her parents when it is attacked by a mysterious group. The attackers violently and systematically murder everyone aboard. Only Frances, her friend Libby, and two others manage to escape. Frances and Libby spend a week together adrift at sea before Libby's father arrives to rescue them. He is too late for his daughter, but Frances has survived. To protect Frances from the attackers, Libby's father proposes she adopt Libby's identity. Two others have survived the disaster, Senator Wells and his son Grey. At first, Frances is ecstatic; she and Grey fell in love with each other on the cruise. It comes as a shock when she learns they are not telling the truth about the cause of the disaster. Frances suspects Senator Wells may have been behind the attack, and her bitterness at the loss of her family, friend, and identity causes her to plot revenge. After four years, she is finally ready to put her plan into motion. Can she suppress her feelings and enact her vengeance on Grey and his family? Is she able to reconcile herself with the loss of who she was as Frances Mace with who she is now: some caricature of Libby O'Martin? Ryan, known for her The Forest of Hands and Teeth (Random, 2009), delivers a suspenseful thriller dealing with themes of identity, love, loss, and getting even.