Black and Blue

Anna Quindlen’s realistic thriller Black and Blue follows main character Frannie Benedetto, who, having suffered severe domestic abuse, chooses to run away with her son to escape the escalating violence of her police officer husband. The book was chosen for Oprah's Book Club in 1998. It also inspired the feature film Enough, which starred Jennifer Lopez as Frannie Benedetto.

Frannie Benedetto and her son, Robert, are on the run from Frannie's abusive, police-officer husband, Bobby. Though Bobby has been abusing Frannie for years, their last argument resulted in Bobby breaking Frannie's nose; she is sure that he will kill her if she doesn't leave him. Frannie enlists the help of the Patty Bancroft and Company organization, which helps battered and abused women escape their abusers and make new lives for themselves under assumed names. Frannie and Robert flee from their home in New York City to a small town in Florida, where they buy a small, ugly house. Frannie tells her neighbors that her name is Beth Crenshaw and that her son's name is Bobby.

The Benedetto's struggle to adjust to their new life in Florida, slowly acclimating and making friends. Frannie starts a relationship with Mike Riordan, a local teacher who befriends both Frannie and Robert, helping them feel more at home. Frannie also becomes friends with a local mother Cindy Roerbacker, whom she has breakfast with every morning after their kids have gone to school.



Though Frannie feels more comfortable in her new life away from Bobby, who had been abusing her since the beginning of their relationship eighteen years before, her son Robert isn't certain that life in Florida is what he wants. Frannie makes it clear to him that their safety is on the line if he reveals their real identities, but Robert misses his father and is disappointed and confused when his teacher asks him to create his family tree and he can only put his mother's name on the page. Frannie urges Robert not to call Bobby in New York, but Bobby disobeys her. Frannie tries to hang up before Bobby can trace the phone call, but she's too late. By the time she disconnects the phone, Bobby has already used police technology to find the house where his wife and son live.

As Frannie expected, Bobby follows the information from the traced phone call to find her and Robert in Florida. He breaks into their home at night. Frannie fights him to get him to leave her and Robert alone. But Bobby, violent and nearly impossible to stop, chokes Frannie until she loses consciousness and falls on the floor. When she wakes up a few hours later, the house has been torn apart and both Bobby and Robert are gone. Frannie has no idea what to do and is terrified for the safety of her son.

Mike and Frannie hire a private investigator to find Robert, but both he and Bobby seem to be gone for good. Unsure how to move forward, Frannie eventually marries Mike and settles into her life as Beth Crenshaw without Robert, though she is devastated that she can't find her son.



At the end of the novel, Frannie receives a phone message from Robert, telling her that he is safe with his father and that he hasn't been harmed. Though Frannie is relieved that her son is alive and okay, she is heartbroken that she will never see him again. Mike and her other friends in Florida tell her that leaving Bobby was the best decision she could have made and that it likely saved her life, but Frannie spends the rest of her life wondering if she made the right decision to save herself if it meant losing her son.

Anna Quindlen, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, has written many novels. She has worked for the New York Post and the New York Times, and is known for her opinion column “Public and Private.” She has written eleven books of non-fiction and a semi-autobiographical novel, One True Thing, which inspired a movie featuring Meryl Streep and Renee Zellweger. Black and Blue, her third novel, became a national sensation after it was chosen for the Oprah Book Club. Since then, Quindlen has written six more novels. Her latest work, Alternate Side, was published in 2018.