Essence - Evelyn Allen Harper

“Why are you wearing my wife’s perfume?” Laura Baker’s rescuer demanded, after
hoisting her out of the water.

Laura, a typical stay-at- home mom, is jolted out of her complacent world when she
discovers that her best friend, Joan Wilberson, is having an affair with her husband.
Banished from Laura’s life, Joan is an easy target for the escaped serial killer, George
Knox, but when George’s murderous plan is interrupted, the quiet town is thrown into
turmoil.

Broken hearted from losing both her husband and her friend, Laura is driven back to
her passion of painting and into the path of Josh Lang, a recently widowed author,
battling his own ghosts.

It isn’t until the alluring, Bob Miller, catches Laura’s eye that she thinks her life is
back on track. With no recent sightings of the dangerous convict, the small town is lulled
back to sleep, but unknown to Laura and the rest of the town, something much more
sinister is afoot.