Called an "impressive debut" by Publisher's Weekly , Miriam's first novel Absolution tells the story of Maggie Delaney, an idealistic wife and mother whose world implodes when her husband is murdered in a seemingly random act. When Maggie attempts to find out what really happened, her search leads her back to her Carolina roots and through the streets of modern-day Boston. In the jungles of Southeast Asia, she uncovers a legacy of secrets about the man she thought she knew and the troubled world they shared as they came of age in America's turbulent sixties. Absolution won the 2007 Novello Press Literary Award. The novel also received Independent Publisher's Gold Award for Best Fiction, Southeast Region, and was a Finalist for Foreword Magazine s 2007 Novel of the Year. This impressive Novello Literary Award winning debut skillfully combines a contemporary courtroom thriller with a subtle look back at the competing passions and pressures of the Vietnam War era. Maggie Delaney's world has been shattered by her husband Richard's murder after he intervened to protect a drugstore clerk from a gunman, teenage Vietnamese immigrant Anh Dung Nguyen. The local DA is convinced that his case against Nguyen is a slam dunk, but that assessment proves off-base when Everett Quincy, a high-profile attorney from New York, takes the case. Quincy suggests that Delaney's death is connected with his experiences in Vietnam, which may have led him to undue violence against Nguyen. This twist reawakens Maggie's antiwar past, as well as her long-ago personal relationship with Quincy. The flashbacks to the war are convincing, and despite some awkward plot elements, Herin delves deep into questions of guilt and forgiveness while demonstrating a gift for the nuances of personal interactions. -- Publisher's Weekly Part murder mystery, part legal thriller, part reflection on the Vietnam War in light of current wars, this novel finds Maggie Delaney recovering from the violent death of her husband, Richard, as the young man accused of the crime goes to trial. Richard Delaney, successful lawyer, Vietnam War veteran, father, and husband, was gunned down by Anh "Billy" Nguyen at a drugstore near his office. What at first seemed an unfortunate random act of violence becomes complicated when a prominent attorney who is a veteran of the antiwar movement joins the defense team. Long-buried secrets about covert missions and war crimes become the focus of the investigation, and Maggie searches for Richard's former buddies to try to understand what happened to her husband so long ago. Her own involvement with the antiwar movement in college ties her to parts of a past that unfold during the trial. Very involving, although the secrets can unroll with frustrating deliberateness; recommended for most fiction collections. -- Library Journal Miriam Herin was born in Miami, Florida, and has taught literature, composition and writing at the University of South Carolina, Essex County College in Newark, N. J., Limestone College, Appalachian State University and Greensboro College. She has been on the editorial staff of Good Housekeeping Magazine and the Winston-Salem Journal . She is the mother of two adult children and grandmother of a delightful 7-year-old. She lives with her husband in Greensboro, North Carolina.