Charley's Web

Charlotte "Charley" Webb is a column writer. One day she receives a letter from Jill Rohmer, a convicted killer of three children on death row, asking Charley to write a book about her case. She accepts this book project, not knowing that this will bring her own children in danger...

Charley's Web is a bit long-winded, however, I liked the surprising ending.

Quotes from the book

Writers of angry e-mails tended to view their every sentence as important and therefore worthy of capital letters, italics, and multiple exclamation points.

It wasn't that she was unfriendly exactly, just a little aloof.

James, at four, was a little butterball of nervous energy, even when he wasn't moving.

Charley thought of the cold and bitter man in whose house she'd grown up, a house full of angry silences and the echo of stern rebukes.

Charley wasn't sure what surprised her more: that her soon-to-be-ex-brother-in-law had slept with two of her sister's best friends or that Anne had so many.

Prime boasted a clientele of mostly young, mostly rich, mostly beautiful – or those whose money qualified them as beautiful – people.

Still, how ironic was it that Charley was considering meeting with a convicted child killer at a time when her own children had come under threat?

She couldn't very well interview a child killer with her own child sitting on her lap.

She probably wasn't the right person for this job. She didn't have enough experience, with either books or psychopaths.

Certainly there was nothing about her appearance to suggest the monster lurking within. Indeed, with her small bones and delicate frame, Jill Rohmer looked more like an innocent victim than a cold-blooded killer.

Everything we become as adults springs from who we were as children, how we were treated, who and what shaped our ideas and values. We are who we were – just taller.

The phone rang just as Charley was contemplating throwing it at his head.

He was married for a little while, but his wife kicked him out after he kicked out two of her teeth.

We may be shaped by our childhood, Charley decided as she headed for the kitchen, but there was such a thing as choice. We are what we do.

"My mother doesn't believe in getting too friendly with the neighbors", Franny explained as Charley closed her eyes and prayed for a hurricane to strike.

Everything's great, Charley repeated in her head. The second time Jill had said that. Charley thought it an odd choice of words to describe living on death row.

We don't get to choose our parents. We do get to choose the kind of parents we will be.

"Do you have any idea what it's like to find out that someone you actually considered marrying is a homicidal maniac?"

"History teaches us that history teaches us nothing."

"You know, I think it's better when I'm drunk. Things seem to make more sense that way."

"Just because you were fooled doesn't make you a fool."