Primal Wound — Ruth Francisco

A young woman sets out to find her birthmother and uncovers a family saga of deceit, insanity, and murder.

When Cicely Scott volunteers to be a kidney donor for her father, she is shocked to discover she was adopted. Suddenly she has lost herself, her history, her identity, her family. But she gains something else. She is free to become whomever she wants to be, informed neither by genetics nor family, but by her own set of ethics. Does that include the license to kill?

Cicely leaves her privileged life in San Francisco to find her birthmother, a frumpy beautician, who lives with her family in rural New Hampshire. Cicely spies on them, insinuates herself into their lives, and befriends her half sister. But her birthmother is terrified when Cicely reveals herself. Why?

Meanwhile, in San Francisco, Homicide Inspector Val Picard tries to track down the murderer of a young preschool teacher who worked with Cicely. Soon Cicely becomes a suspect.

Lies and betrayal lead to the ultimate crime -- murder. But who is at fault?