The title is a pejorative nickname given in 1997 to Amber after she is found in a hotel room with a dead baby. She is a high school girl on prom night whom no one suspects is pregnant. Joe, her date that night, had abandoned her in that room after discovering that the girl he truly loved might still love him. Amber spends time in prison for the death of her baby, then leaves Baltimore for places where she is unknown.
In 2019 she returns, however, and begins life anew as an art dealer. By now Joe is a successful real estate agent happily married to Meredith, a plastic surgeon. Despite his happy marriage, Joe has an affair with Jordan, who becomes clingy and demanding when he tries to break up their relationship.
Then Joe and Amber become reunited, and old sparks get rekindled. Thus he has two affairs going on at the same time. Significantly complicating matters, the Covid pandemic strikes, severely wounding the commercial real estate business, Joe's speciality.
Losing his fortune, unable to get untangled from Jordan and afraid his marriage to Meredith is endangered, Joe turns to Amber for help, just as he did back in high school when he needed tutoring to get into college.
Lippman pours on the surprises at the end of her novel. Some of them seem a stretch, but getting to this point makes good reading.
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