Past Imperfect — Michael Parker

Best-selling author, Max Reilly, whose wife died in a car crash, meets Emma, who is waiting for a divorce from her violent husband. Their early friendship invokes different emotions in them: Max knows he could fall in love with Emma, while she is more reticent, and holds back. Max does not tell Emma that he is a writer, but the one secret he finds difficult to hide from her is a rough-edged back story that began 50 years earlier. It involves violence, murder, and betrayal. Can Max win Emma's hand despite the past?