Kensington Pub.
Feb 2026
She Thought She Was Safe by Terri Parlato has the author venturing away from her series with Detective Rita. This is a stand-alone thriller shows how people are not whom they seem and monsters lurk behind facades.
The plot has Emma realizing she needs a new start. After the unexpected death of her mother and the collapse of her marriage, Emma is looking for a place to escape to. She discovers the identity of her father, something her mother had kept hidden. Emma contacts her biological father, Alex Spencer, a wealthy and famous author of historical mysteries. After a DNA test confirms she is indeed his daughter, he invites her to stay at his secluded Victorian home on Cheshire Lake in Maine. Emma is looking forward to getting to know her father better and enjoying the peacefulness of the lake.
“I wrote Alex as spoiled, people make excuses for him, self-centered, can turn his emotions off and on, strong-willed, spoiled, a narcissist, someone who enjoys money, and thinks himself as an optimist.”
“Emma is a librarian. Feels like an outsider to her new family. Faces adversity head on. She is somebody that is looking for some stability and a family.”
But her arrival is anything but peaceful. Emma’s arrival is met with hostility from Alex’s other daughter, her half-sister, Sunny, who manages his career and is fiercely protective of him. Sunny makes it very clear; she isn’t thrilled about Emma’s sudden appearance. Then there is the mystery behind the death of her father’s sister Mary. Emma begins to feel a strange connection to her along with a growing curiosity about what really happened.
“Sunny feels superior, is mean, confrontational, possessive of her dad, and wants everything to center around her and her family. She feels superior to Emma and is not supportive. She feels threatened by Emma and does not want her to have any relationship with her father. I see her as a villain through and through.”
Then a neighbor is found dead and another one disappears. She also begins to experience buried memories, leaving Emma to question if she has stepped into a nightmare she may never escape.
The setting also plays a role with its isolation of the property. The setting around Cheshire Lake felt eerie and almost gothic at times, leaving readers to wonder if something is not quite right. She realizes her survival depends on recognizing red flags. Emma realizes she is in immediate danger because those around her want to make sure secrets are kept.
Readers will be hooked from page one. The tension created adds to the unease of Emma who does not know who to trust.
