The Innocents

The Innocents
Laura Lippman

Years ago, they were the best of friends. But as time passed, they grew apart, became adults with families of their own, and began to forget about the past – and the terrible lies they shared.But now Gordon, the youngest and wildest of the five, has died and the others are thrown together for the first time in years.Could their long-ago lie be the reason for their troubles today? Is it more dangerous to admit to what they’d done or is it the strain of keeping the secret that is beginning to wear down on their souls.Dark, provocative and beautifully written, Laura Lippman’s genre defying novel will appeal to fans of Lionel Shriver, Megan Abbott and Kate Atkinson.(First published as The Most Dangerous Thing in the US)

THE INNOCENTS

Laura Lippman

Copyright

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

AVON

A division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

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London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in the USA by HarperCollinsPublishers,

New York, NY, 2011

Copyright © Laura Lippman 2012

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Laura Lippman asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9781847561954

Ebook Edition © July 2012 ISBN: 9780007453290

Version 2018-07-23

For Georgia Rae Simon

Alas for maiden, alas for Judge,

For rich repiner and household drudge!

God pity them both! and pity us all,

Who vainly the dreams of youth recall.

—JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER, “MAUD MULLER”

Table of Contents

Title Page (#uec4f778e-1b5f-5014-ae62-fc6462965410)

Copyright (#u4c6c160e-8bfe-5e7c-8efd-709cb8126182)

Dedication (#u0ce425e5-95cf-517a-85dc-e60f240578d6)

Epigraph (#u8540aafc-c946-5992-bff5-c71167c29852)

GO-GO (#u76617fca-6184-5b39-9ab4-b003e2fdce02)

US (#u7f5f25a8-ce8b-5c0a-aacd-31a9c2b489c9)

Chapter One (#ue5f10397-b71f-5524-98ef-c0b322036d74)

Chapter Two: Summer 1976 (#uac1e0ae2-8f48-55c4-bc87-e3520699e9e4)

Chapter Three (#u22d2bc08-a800-5690-ad46-6e6472c88ace)

Chapter Four: Autumn 1977–Spring 1978 (#u377aafbf-1d26-5f64-ad80-5730a4816a35)

Chapter Five (#ud025728b-6a6a-5d97-82ce-0415776c6869)

Chapter Six: Summer 1978 (#u5fc6dff4-e811-5cca-901f-c9cd6839e718)

Chapter Seven (#uc2f26bb1-3ab6-53bf-b18d-db9c25829e90)

Chapter Eight: Summer 1978 (#ua42b5e90-ee22-505d-9296-730561190445)

Chapter Nine (#u141a697a-3660-5719-a8d2-e33d804f0a0e)

Chapter Ten: Autumn 1978–Winter 1979 (#u4dec02b5-aff9-5c4f-8496-855127bff392)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve: Summer 1979 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fourteen: September 5, 1979 (#litres_trial_promo)

Them (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fifteen: Autumn 1979 (#litres_trial_promo)