Confession

An intense and engrossing novel of psychological suspense set on the Mississippi Gulf Coast-and reminiscent of the darkly tangled familial relationships brought into prominence by Mississippi-born writer Tennessee Williams-Confession features protagonist George Burden, a distinguished attorney who finds himself at a crossroads as he approaches his 55th birthday. From outward appearances, it seems George is living an enviable life. But even with his devoted wife, affluent lifestyle, social prominence, successful career, and beautiful family, George is dogged by the worry that the choices he made were too easy and too safe. His choice to begin an affair with Becca Talbot is anything but easy-and decidedly unsafe. A young woman who works in his law firm, Becca is a divorcee with a five-year-old son-and younger than George's youngest daughter. But for George, the affair is far more than just physical: he falls deeply in love with Becca. During one passionate noon encounter at a local hotel, George announces that he wants to leave his wife and asks Becca to marry him. When Becca rejects his proposal, George becomes enraged, and when he later sees Becca with an unknown young man, he becomes obsessed with convincing Becca to marry him-and demystifying the ambiguities of Becca's life. But that quest will lead George down a precarious path. Lust, jealousy, rage, and envy are on a collision course-and even in the present day, George's past begins to bubble to the surface. When a violent confrontation ensues, George will not only learn the truth about Becca, he will learn the truth about himself. Might some secrets best be kept secret? A tense thriller with a shocking conclusion that unfolds in four days, Confession is a powerful tale about passion, obsession, and desire. Novelist Richard Freis paints an extraordinary-and extraordinarily compelling-portrait of a character is crisis in Confession, a haunting tale that will leave readers breathless. "A taut psychological thriller, focused on a mid-life crisis and arriving at a stunning conclusion."-Suzanne Marrs, author of "What There Is to Say We Have Said: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and William Maxwell." "Richard Freis reminds us how deep our struggle remains with all the great questions-first among them love and faith. In Confession, the end result is a masterful portrait of our familiar world, where we are all obsessed with the complex machinations of the human mind, and the human heart"-Steve Kistulentz, author of "The Luckless Age" and "The Little Black Daydream"