Hal­lie Ephron’s work has been called ​“unput­down­able” (Lau­ra Lipp­man), ​“unset­tling” (Seat­tle Times), ​“inge­nious” (Joseph Find­er), ​“rich­ly atmos­pher­ic” (USA Today), and ​“deli­cious­ly creepy,” (Pub­lish­ers Week­ly). Now, with There Was an Old Woman she deliv­ers her most accom­plished nov­el of psy­cho­log­i­cal sus­pense yet. ​“Don’t let him in until I’m gone,” Mina’s neigh­bor says from the gur­ney as the EMTs load her into the ambu­lance. Though Mina does­n’t know who he is, she duti­ful­ly calls San­dra’s daugh­ter to relay the mes­sage. Evie Fer­rante is dis­mayed when she gets the call: once again, her moth­er’s drink­ing has land­ed her in the hos­pi­tal. But when Evie arrives at her moth­er’s home, she’s shocked by the ter­ri­ble state of the house. As Evie cleans and orga­nizes, she finds things that don’t make sense: expen­sive liquor in the garage, prici­er than her moth­er’s usu­al brand, and tins of cat food when her moth­er does­n’t even like cats. Where is her moth­er get­ting all this mon­ey, and is she los­ing her mind? Sus­pi­cious and con­cerned, Evie rekin­dles a rela­tion­ship with her moth­er’s elder­ly next door neigh­bor, Mina, who has her­self been hav­ing episodes she can’t explain late­ly. But the more the two women inves­ti­gate, a more men­ac­ing scheme begins to unfold. There Was an Old Woman is Ephron’s most grip­ping and evoca­tive nov­el yet; a twist­ing, page-turn­ing tale that shows how secrets from the past fes­ter if they remain buried and how the seduc­tion of greed can lead to des­per­ate measures.