Author(s): Moira Johnston

True Crime

Spectral Evidence is the story of the Ramona family of Napa Valley, whose outward appearance of apple-pie all-American success was destroyed by allegations of child sexual abuse brought by the oldest daughter, Holly, her mother, and Holly's therapists against her father, Gary. These allegations were based on memories recovered through the efforts of the therapists, who were subsequently sued by Gary Ramona for malpractice. The book builds with accounts of the not-always-conventional postwar families of Gary and Stephanie Ramona, through Gary's rise to prominence in the wine industry, to the awful day that twenty-year-old Holly was overcome by a vivid recollection of her father in bed with her at age eight. From that point, beginning with a powerfully rendered confrontation between Gary and his wife and daughter, to the dramatic conclusion of the first trial, where malpractice is alleged regarding recovered memory, readers witness a dynamic and emotional family drama.

Secondhand, Good Condition.