Black-Eyed Susans - Julia Heaberlin                                                                                         (New Author)

#2021monoplychallenge - Marvin Gardens - Yellow Cover

The 1st half seemed to move rather slowly but it did pick up for the 2nd half. 

It is told in 2 timelines. One timeline is the main character, Tessie, at the age of 16 where she talks to her therapist about the trauma she suffered.  She was kidnapped and thrown into a shallow grave with 2 dead girls. There were black-eyed susans growing around the grave.

The other timeline is present day and the man who was accused of the crime is soon to be put to death.  But some evidence has come to light that he may be innocent and Tessa has been finding black-eyed susans being planted around her place.  

Enjoyed the book but I am not sure if I liked the ending.  

Goodreads summary

As a sixteen-year-old, Tessa Cartwright was found in a Texas field, barely alive amid a scattering of bones, with only fragments of memory as to how she got there. Ever since, the press has pursued her as the lone surviving “Black-Eyed Susan,” the nickname given to the murder victims because of the yellow carpet of wildflowers that flourished above their shared grave. Tessa’s testimony about those tragic hours put a man on death row.
 
Now, almost two decades later, Tessa is an artist and single mother. In the desolate cold of February, she is shocked to discover a freshly planted patch of black-eyed susans—a summertime bloom—just outside her bedroom window. Terrified at the implications—that she sent the wrong man to prison and the real killer remains at large—Tessa turns to the lawyers working to exonerate the man awaiting execution. But the flowers alone are not proof enough, and the forensic investigation of the still-unidentified bones is progressing too slowly. An innocent life hangs in the balance. The legal team appeals to Tessa to undergo hypnosis to retrieve lost memories—and to share the drawings she produced as part of an experimental therapy shortly after her rescue.
 
What they don’t know is that Tessa and the scared, fragile girl she was have built a  fortress of secrets. As the clock ticks toward the execution, Tessa fears for her sanity, but even more for the safety of her teenaged daughter. Is a serial killer still roaming free, taunting Tessa with a trail of clues? She has no choice but to confront old ghosts and lingering nightmares to finally discover what really happened that night.