Breathless

by J.P. Smith

What does grief taste like? What does it weigh? How does it quietly curve around your heart, begging long-kept secrets to become unburied? When history professor Jill Bowman learns of her husband’s gruesome murder in a seedy motel room, she knows he had no business being there―not serious, sincere Peter, the man she’d known in the most intimate ways a person can be known. Enveloped in grief, Jill struggles to piece together what could have happened that night and slowly uncovers Peter’s secrets. But her search reveals dark parts of herself as well…secrets she’d never known she was keeping. The self-discovery forces her to reexamine her relationships with her family, her students, her mentally ill daughter, and the detective handling Peter’s case―to whom she finds herself inexorably drawn. At once a shadowy, erotically charged thriller and a heartbreaking portrait of grief, Breathless explores the subtle and precious intricacies of a life upended by sudden death.

Paperback

First published June 1, 1995

About the author

J.P. Smith was born in New York City and began his writing career in England, where he lived for several years with his wife and daughter, and where his first novel was published. As a screenwriter, he was an Academy Nicholl Fellowship Semifinalist in 2014.

His ninth novel, The Summoning, a psychological thriller, was published on September 7th, 2021.