It's 1942, and the Nazi Juggernaut continues to crush Europe, while on the island of Newfoundland the loss of a generation awaits. Two girls who are best friends heading into their last year of high school visit a local park-and their lives are changed forever. The beautiful, talented Angela faces loss and then a darkness, a darkness so shameful that she cannot share it with anyone, not even her best friend. Dorothy faces the prospect of becoming the island's first "lady lawyer," one who offers hope for women seeking salvation from the chauvinism that dominates domestic life. A fearless examination of the monumental barriers that have stood in the way of women, My Best Friend Was Angela Bennett is a story of how a friendship endures through the most difficult of times.

Suzanne Hillier was born in St. John's, NF., before Confederation with Canada, and before the start of WWII. She graduated from McGill University with a BA in social sciences and attended graduate school in Columbia University in New York. She married and moved to Toronto, where she obtained a teaching certificate, an MA in literature from the University of Toronto, and where she also taught for several years. She started law school in 1968 and graduated in 1972, the year of her husband's death. She opened her own law practice in 1974, retired in 2005, and started writing. Her fiction has been published in various North American periodicals. Sonja & Carl was published by Brindle & Glass Publishing in 2017; My Best Friend Was Angela Bennett is her second novel. She currently divides her time between Caledon, Ontario, and the Southern California Desert.

Suzanne Hillier's profile page

"With searing clarity and poignant insight, Suzanne Hillier takes readers deep into one woman's personal hell. My Best Friend Was Angela Bennett is a transformational exploration of abuse, sadism, shame, entrapment, and injustice. This tragic account of why one woman stays sheds light on the psychological and physical horrors of domestic violence. A truly harrowing journey."
-Angie Abdou, author of The Bone Cage

"If you're always looking for another book to read, as I am, this is a brilliant choice. What engaging storytelling! Suzanne Hillier is overdue to burst on the literary scene."
-Adair Lara, former columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle

"Suzanne Hillier's My Best Friend Was Angela Bennett is a fierce, provocative novel about love, loyalty, and survival. With exacting, often witty prose, Hillier explores a time and place of narrow expectations for women and the chasm spousal abuse creates between friends. This novel is harrowing, funny, tender, unforgettable. It will stay with you."
-Libby Creelman, author of Walking in Paradise

"An unflinching, often searing, account of two women's lives and enduring friendship in Smallwood-era Newfoundland."
-Ed Riche, author of Rare Birds