Emelle Gamble

The Second Man Emelle Gamble

Her first love is back in town . . . and so is a murderer.

Could they be one and the same man?

Jill Farrell's college reunion is coming up, but she wants no part of it. The man she once loved, Swedish exchange student Max Kallstrom, is rumored to be attending, but that doesn't tempt her because Max disappeared from her life the night before the graduation, and has never been heard from since.

While she is curious about why he never contacted her, she is intent on protecting her still tender heart from being further humiliated. And when her ex-husband, Andrew Denton, knocks on her door and announces he wants to make nice, and, oh, by the way, one of their class alumni might be a murderer, Jill's resolve to avoid the event hardens.

Jill doesn't have the time or emotional resources to deal with either man from her past as she is also facing one of the most daunting challenges of her life, coping with her mother's early onset Alzheimer's disease. She shuts Andrew's efforts to reconnect down, and tries to put Max out of her mind.
And that's that, until a second man knocks on her door, and the emotions of a time long ago overtakes her. Max Kallstrom is back, and he tells Jill she's the reason he has come to California. He asks her to please let him explain why she hasn't heard from him for fifteen long years.

She's willing to listen to what he has to say, but immediately realizes that her memories must guide her through a wrenching and dangerous few days. While her heart remembers a handsome young lover, she and her classmates are all different people now, and the reality of a murdered friend proves she can't trust everyone.

What's not so clear is if she should trust anyone . . . especially Max Kallstrom, who is many things, including a man with a secret.