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The Unforgiven
Maggie, the main character, has been released from jail to rebuild her life after a wrongful and lengthy prison sentence for a murder. Maggie has secretly taken a job and is trying to hide her past from her new employer and the rest of the world. Unfortunately, someone is stalking her and trying to make sure her life is anything but restful. Complicating things are Maggie's growing attraction to her boss, and her lack of trust and unwillingness to confide in him.
251 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1981
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April 1, 2026
The name Patricia J. MacDonald is familiar to me as I believe she has been an editor for books written by both R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike.
Didn't know she wrote books of her own, so I became intrigued and purchased a used copy of this one in paperback for a decent price on Thriftbooks.
Originally written back in 1981 and mine is a first edition paperback from Pocket Star in 2005. Nothing seems dated about the story, so it holds up pretty well. If you are not too keen on things like elderly abuse, animal deaths and familial rape...I'd steer clear of it so that is a warning before I proceed and why I couldn't really give it five stars.
Maggie Fraser has been in a women's prison for thirteen years since she was twenty years old. They say that she killed the man she loved and left him to die bleeding in the snow because he was an older married man who wouldn't leave his wife and daughter. Maggie still maintains her innocence because she truly loved Roger, but her mother and the religious Sister of her church believe she is guilty.
An incident in Maggie's childhood involving her father had both women believing she was guilty of sin and murder until the day they both died. Now Maggie is free after serving her sentence and the abuse of the other female inmates, verbal and physical abuse that almost pushed Maggie to suicide.
She heads to an island of the coast of New England after sharing correspondence with an editor at the local paper during her sentence. Always wanting to be a writer or a journalist, Maggie was surprised to have anybody reach out to show her kindness and offer her a job upon her release.
Maggie arrives to find the Man, Bill Emmett, is gone away on vacation and his assistant editor is running the paper in his stead. The much younger Jess is a ruggedly handsome man, divorced and now back in his childhood hometown that his ex-wife absolutely hated. There is confusion as Jess knew nothing about a job opening and the woman in the position, married Grace, isn't too happy about having a younger replacement.
Jess has no intention of firing Grace but not wanting to turn Maggie away after she says she has moved her life around to take the job. Maggie will help out and look for a place to stay which is easy since it is a town that usually thrives on tourist money in the summer, but it is now the end of the season.
The Thornhill house will be Maggie's home for now and she finds that one of the other girls who works there at the paper named Evy lives just down the road. She is about eighteen or nineteen years old and lives with her elderly grandmother and has been a townie her whole life, so she has a sort of crush on Jess.
Not that Jess notices Evy as more than a little sister especially when Maggie arrives. He is intrigued by Maggie, but she refuses to tell him her dark secret even when he starts opening his own lovelorn heart to her. Since Maggie is not an islander and very vulnerable at being hurt by so many people in her past, the other people see her as trouble.
It is among this small town that we find someone is not happy to have Maggie here at all.
A relationship starts up between Maggie and Jess with it being very clear to anyone reading the book just who the person is seeking revenge against Maggie, but I won't spoil it. At times, Jess is just too much of an oblivious male for his own good but at other times, you can't help but be charmed by him.
I don't find any real fault with Maggie as her tragic backstory is revealed layer by layer. You can't help but have your heart ache for her because the way she gets treated in prison by other women is brutal and then she just wanted to have a normal life again.
A few of the townspeople treat Maggie fine at first but then change their tune and others distrust her at first but soon become sympathetic towards her. Ironically, the men need time to come around or maybe not that ironically since I know how catty women can be.
The Unforgiven made me have to take a break here and there because I dreaded knowing what was coming next. Once you have read enough horror/thriller/mystery books it is just a matter of whether you figured out the pattern or not. You dread it because you know what may or may not happen so you will either be disappointed or disgusted with yourself that you didn't see it coming or knew all too well what waited on the next page or in the next chapter.
The ending was probably the thing that made my heart skip a beat the most and if you want to know why, I recommend finding a copy of The Unforgiven soon as you are able.
Perhaps I'll give some more of MacDonald's books a go as she is a very masterful storyteller with her writing.
Didn't know she wrote books of her own, so I became intrigued and purchased a used copy of this one in paperback for a decent price on Thriftbooks.
Originally written back in 1981 and mine is a first edition paperback from Pocket Star in 2005. Nothing seems dated about the story, so it holds up pretty well. If you are not too keen on things like elderly abuse, animal deaths and familial rape...I'd steer clear of it so that is a warning before I proceed and why I couldn't really give it five stars.
Maggie Fraser has been in a women's prison for thirteen years since she was twenty years old. They say that she killed the man she loved and left him to die bleeding in the snow because he was an older married man who wouldn't leave his wife and daughter. Maggie still maintains her innocence because she truly loved Roger, but her mother and the religious Sister of her church believe she is guilty.
An incident in Maggie's childhood involving her father had both women believing she was guilty of sin and murder until the day they both died. Now Maggie is free after serving her sentence and the abuse of the other female inmates, verbal and physical abuse that almost pushed Maggie to suicide.
She heads to an island of the coast of New England after sharing correspondence with an editor at the local paper during her sentence. Always wanting to be a writer or a journalist, Maggie was surprised to have anybody reach out to show her kindness and offer her a job upon her release.
Maggie arrives to find the Man, Bill Emmett, is gone away on vacation and his assistant editor is running the paper in his stead. The much younger Jess is a ruggedly handsome man, divorced and now back in his childhood hometown that his ex-wife absolutely hated. There is confusion as Jess knew nothing about a job opening and the woman in the position, married Grace, isn't too happy about having a younger replacement.
Jess has no intention of firing Grace but not wanting to turn Maggie away after she says she has moved her life around to take the job. Maggie will help out and look for a place to stay which is easy since it is a town that usually thrives on tourist money in the summer, but it is now the end of the season.
The Thornhill house will be Maggie's home for now and she finds that one of the other girls who works there at the paper named Evy lives just down the road. She is about eighteen or nineteen years old and lives with her elderly grandmother and has been a townie her whole life, so she has a sort of crush on Jess.
Not that Jess notices Evy as more than a little sister especially when Maggie arrives. He is intrigued by Maggie, but she refuses to tell him her dark secret even when he starts opening his own lovelorn heart to her. Since Maggie is not an islander and very vulnerable at being hurt by so many people in her past, the other people see her as trouble.
It is among this small town that we find someone is not happy to have Maggie here at all.
A relationship starts up between Maggie and Jess with it being very clear to anyone reading the book just who the person is seeking revenge against Maggie, but I won't spoil it. At times, Jess is just too much of an oblivious male for his own good but at other times, you can't help but be charmed by him.
I don't find any real fault with Maggie as her tragic backstory is revealed layer by layer. You can't help but have your heart ache for her because the way she gets treated in prison by other women is brutal and then she just wanted to have a normal life again.
A few of the townspeople treat Maggie fine at first but then change their tune and others distrust her at first but soon become sympathetic towards her. Ironically, the men need time to come around or maybe not that ironically since I know how catty women can be.
The Unforgiven made me have to take a break here and there because I dreaded knowing what was coming next. Once you have read enough horror/thriller/mystery books it is just a matter of whether you figured out the pattern or not. You dread it because you know what may or may not happen so you will either be disappointed or disgusted with yourself that you didn't see it coming or knew all too well what waited on the next page or in the next chapter.
The ending was probably the thing that made my heart skip a beat the most and if you want to know why, I recommend finding a copy of The Unforgiven soon as you are able.
Perhaps I'll give some more of MacDonald's books a go as she is a very masterful storyteller with her writing.
Displaying 1 of 1 review