In a small town along the cliffs of northern California, a young girl has disappeared. Walk and his best friend, Vincent, are both teens and join in the search. Walk wants to join the police force, like his dad, and when the girl’s body is found along the roadside, he forces himself to give evidence that implicates Vincent. Vincent ends up in prison and after killing a man in a prison fight, ends up there for thirty years. Walk does what he can to stay in touch with Vincent, but the prisoner denies any contact. The girl’s older sister, Star Radley, ends up an addict and drifting her way through life. But she has two children, their father unknown. The older is Duchess Day Radley, born outlaw, even if she is only still in middle school. She has a much younger brother, who she protects fiercely.
But Vincent has been released from prison, and moves back to his family’s home. The town is undergoing gentrification, and the property, as one of the few that has not slid off the cliffs, is suddenly much more valuable. And Walk, who has been keeping a protective eye over the Radley siblings since their mother was murdered, now has some issues of his own.
This plot is as twisty and convoluted as all get out, but you can count on Duchess, as shitty as her life has become, to walk by her own North Star. A compelling read, and there’s no telling what’s waiting around the bend.