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administration building in handcuffs was appalling. (Did police routinely handcuff boys suspected of sexual assault, which was what this particular crime, in the state of Vermont, was deemed?) Police in this case meant either Gary Quinney or Bernie Herrmann, neither of whom would find any satisfaction in the arrest; Gary was, after all, Silas’s uncle. Would the boys then appear some months later in the dowager courthouse across the street from the gates of Avery, the building itself smug in its self-righteousness? Mike’s job would be at risk, and any number of teachers who were supposed to be supervising either the dance or the dorm that evening might be fired, for one could not expect the trustees to view the incident and its attendant legal fuss lightly. Would the boys then go to jail, to the Vermont State Prison at Windsor, where almost certainly they would be raped in turn?

Mike reined in his thoughts. He was getting carried away. No, he had to get a grip and act quickly. Three boys were in trouble, and a girl… well, presumably, if it did turn out to be a case of sexual assault, the trouble had already occurred to the girl, though the fallout for her might be endless.

Mike got up off the floor and sat on the sofa while he loosened his tie and unbuttoned the top button of his shirt, as if increasing blood flow to the brain might help solve his problem. And it was then that the word containment entered his mind. And with that word, moral, ethical, and political choices were made, though Mike would realize the implications of these only later, when it occurred to him that he might have chosen at that moment another word, such as revelation, say, or help.

LOOK FOR THESE OTHER NOVELS BY Anita Shreve

Body Surfing

“Deceptions abound in this engrossing page-turner. The embittered family drama has unforeseen plot twists and character tiffs galore.”

— Alexis Burling, Washington Post

A Wedding in December

“Engrossing.… An excellent novel about new beginnings threatened by old memories that ultimately reveal uncomfortable secrets from the past.… By book’s end, lives are drastically changed, and Shreve has made readers care that they have.”

— Tasca Robinson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Light On Snow

“An evening’s entertainment that will linger at the edges of your mind for days.… Shreve’s writing is spare, neat, and crisp, yet the principal characters are fully formed, and their lives worth caring about.”

— Lynn Hopper, Indianapolis Star

All He Ever Wanted

“Anita Shreve is up to her old page-turning tricks…There’s something addictive about her literary tales of love and lust. … She is a master at depicting passion’s ferocious grip.”

— Jocelyn McClurg, USA Today

Sea Glass

“Shreve simply has the Gift — the ability to hook you from the first page and not let go until the final word.”

— Zofia Smardz, Washington Post Book World

The Last Time They Met

“The Last Time They Met is a flat-out, can’t-put-it-down page-turner… . A riverting story that teases and confounds as it moves back in time from the end to the start of a love affair.”

Fortune’s Rocks

“Fortune’s Rocks kept me reading long into the night — and found me back at it right after breakfast.… Shreve renders an adolescent girl’s plunge into disastrous passion with excruciating precision and acuteness.”

— Katherine A. Powers, Boston Globe

The Pilot’s Wife

“From cover to rapidly reached cover, The Pilot Wife is beautifully plotted, tensely paced, and thoroughly absorbing.”

— Heller McAlpin, Newsday

Resistance

“A simple story set in terrible times. I reached the last chapter with hungry eyes, wanting more.”

— Danielle Roter, Los Angeles Times Book Review

Available in paper back wherever books are sold