Finished: Truly Madly Guilty (Moriarty) Another good page-turner, set in Australia, about the lives of three ordinary couples who get turned upside down by a near tragic event at a neighborhood barbecue, and how they are each affected and why they each feel their own level of guilt after the event. And, how three other people on the periphery arre affected in a major way without any of the rather self-absorbent couples even realizing it. Clementine and Erika have been best friends since elementary school, when Clementine's social worker mother forced Clementine to befriend the friendless Erika, who was growing up in a home with a mother who was a hoarder of massive proportions. Clementine resented Erika more than befriended her, but still as young, married adults, they have an unbreakable bond. Clementine is pretty, talented, married to a lovely man, Sam, and has two adorable little girls, 4 year old Holly and 2 year old Ruby. Clementine is a talented cellist who has an audition for the Sydney Opera House coming up, so she's rather preoccupied with herself and her own feelings. Sam is a great dad who has a new job, but also does more "stay at home dad" type parenting with the girls. Erika is an obsessive, compulsive neat freak with a very orderly life after her horrible, hoarding childhood. She's married to semi-hypochondriac, Oliver, who grew up as an only child with alcoholic parents. They love each other terribly, and have tried In-vitro Fertilization for the past two years to have their own child. Erika is the godmother to Holly and Ruby, and both she and Oliver love the two girls dearly. They often judge Clementine and Sam, though, thinking they are too lax in their parenting. Vid is a loud, friendly, huge man in his second marriage to his beautiful, younger, ex-stripper wife, Tiffany. They have a ten year old daughter, Dakota. Vid and Tiffany have lots of money and love to entertain in their ostentatious house, complete with twinkling lights and replica Trevi fountain in the backyard. Harry is the cranky octogenarian that lives next door to Vid and Tiffany and is constantly complaining about their music being too loud, their dog tearing up his yard, and anything else he can think to complain about. He's usually fairly rude, even when Vid always invites him over for the backyard get together's. He never comes, but just stays alone in his house next door. The only person he ever bothers to talk to and be friendly with is Oliver, because Oliver is just a super nice guy. So, one day Vid and Brittany have a barbecue and invite Erika, Oliver, Clementine, Sam and the girls. Vid, though he loves his wife dearly, is mesmerized by classical music and loves hearing about Clementine's playing. Tiffany is rather flirty with the other men, but nothing that bothers anyone. Of course, Erika feels inferior and proceeds to get tipsy, while Oliver constantly plays with the girls and points things out to them. At one point, Erika goes into the house to retrieve some dessert plates, while Oliver goes to the restroom in the backyard cabana. Dakota, who has also been watching the little girls, tells her mother she's going to her room to read. Tiffany tells Clementine that Dakota is no longer watching the girls, and Clementine says, that's fine...she'd done more than enough already. So, Clementine and Sam start watching their own daughters. They're good parents, but not the hovering always three feet away type. While Erika and Oliver are in the house and restroom, Clementine, Sam, Vid and Tiffany get caught up in a conversation and no one sees little Ruby toddle off with Holly's precious purse of collected rocks slung over her shoulder towards the huge fountain. Not until Erika comes out of the house and sees Ruby lying face down in the fountain and screams bloody murder does anyone jump into action. Oliver comes tearing around the cabana and he and Erika get to Ruby first, pulling her out and performing the CPR they have so carefully learned as they feel prospective parents should. It looks for awhile like little Ruby might not make it, but she finally gasps and throws up all the water and is helicoptered to the hospital. The near tragedy changes everything for everyone as different levels of guilt affect each one. Sam becomes despondent that "super dad" that he is let himself get enthralled in a story by ex-stripper Tiffany. Clementine feels the same way. They both blame themselves and each other and their marriage starts crumbling. Vid takes a sledge hammer to the fountain the next day and tears it apart. Erika can't remember any of the details leading up to the grabbing of  Ruby from the fountain, but something is niggling at her conscience. She does remember one thing very clearly though. Right before the party, she and Oliver had privately asked Clementine if she'd be an egg donor for them...the next step in having their own child after IVF had failed so many times. Clementine had been shocked and said she'd think about it before they all headed to the party. Privately, she told Sam that the thought disgusted her and why did Erika always, her entire life, have to have a piece of her to make her life right? Sadly, Erika overhears this conversation and she's devastated. She's still thinking about that when she goes out and sees Ruby in the fountain. Unbeknownst to her parents, Dakota, the ten year old of Vid and Tiffany's assumes a terrible guilt on her own shoulders. She thinks it's her fault that Ruby nearly drowned because she went inside to read. She starts have terrible spells of just sitting and staring and hating her once beloved books until Vid and Tiffany finally pry it out of her and convince her it wasn't her fault. They take her to see the recovered Ruby and Clementine reemphasizes to Dakota that it wasn't her fault, and she's much better. Sadly, one day Oliver and Tiffany realize that the old neighbor, Harry, hasn't put his trash out in weeks, so they go to the door to check on him. No one has seen him since he was cranky about the dog the day of the barbecue. They get into his house and discover to their horror that he's dead at the foot of the stairs and must have been like that for weeks! They are wracked with guilt that they weren't friendlier to him or checking on him earlier. We also come to find out a few weeks later that Erika has secretly taken things from Clementine all her life! She's got an old necklace, her grandmother's pearl-handled scissors, a missing family ice cream scoop, and even little Ruby's light up tennis shoe that they couldn't find earlier the day of the bbq. When Oliver discovers Erika's secret hoard, he doesn't worry about her becoming a hoarder, but does freak out that she has an obsession with things from Clementine. He ixnay's the egg donor process, which Clementine, out of guilt, has finally said that she'd do, and insists that Erika give back the missing things, a little at a time. In the meantime, when Sam almost implodes at a CPR life-saving course that he and Clementine start to take, he breaks down and cries and Clementine realizes that he might be suffering from PTSD about the near-drowning. Sure enough, he goes to a therapist and they begin to get back on track with their marriage. At the end of the book, we are hit with a couple of surprises, one which I assumed all along. Erika finally remembers everything that happened the day of the barbecue and what she remembers is walking outside with the dessert plates and hearing an incessant knocking! When she finally looks up she sees the old Harry banging on his window and pointing at the fountain. The tipsy Erika looks at the fountain and at first thinks that Harry is complaining about some trash floating in the fountain. It takes her a minute to realize that it's Ruby and she drops the plates, screams and runs! Harry, not understanding why Erika is just standing there, runs as fast as his 80-something arthritic legs will let him to go downstairs. He never makes it, though, because he trips on the top step and tumbles to his death. Yes, Harry the crank, died trying to save little Ruby. :-( Then, we also see the flashback of little Holly asking her grandmother that night if Ruby was going to die. She's very upset and confesses that she was mad at her for taking her rock purse so she pushed her! That's the one I kind of saw coming. Holly's grandmother tries to force the memory away from young Holly by telling her that Ruby slipped and fell. Anyway....everyone ends up pretty un-psychologically scarred by the end of the book. Erika and Oliver decide to try foster parenting first, Sam gets his head back into his new job, and Clementine does make the Sydney Opera House orchestra. I, myself, am so very glad that the author did not have two year old Ruby, who carried around a kitchen whisk like it was a teddy bear, die!! She was my favorite character. :-)