Ellie Barrett has spent years ignoring the cracks in her marriage. Joanna Fox has spent years hiding a devastating secret. When a global pandemic turns neighbors into lifelines, neither woman can continue pretending everything is fine.

The women of Fox Run Court have always watched one another from a safe distance.

Close enough to share celebrations. Close enough to exchange smiles and small talk. But not close enough to reveal what was really happening behind closed doors.

When the world suddenly shrinks to the boundaries of their neighborhood, long-buried secrets and simmering tensions can no longer remain hidden. As marriages falter, friendships fracture, and old betrayals come to light, Ellie and Joanna must decide whether the truth will destroy the lives they've built—or finally set them free.

A Safe Distance is a captivating story of family, resilience, and the extraordinary challenges that reveal who we truly are.

Perfect for readers who enjoy emotional women's fiction, family drama, and stories of friendship, forgiveness, and second chances.

Set during the uncertainty and emotional strain of the early pandemic years, A Safe Distance examines how quickly familiar lives can unravel under pressure.

Bernadette Walsh creates a compelling portrait of two families navigating isolation, fear, resentment, and shifting loyalties while trying to maintain a sense of normalcy in an increasingly unstable world. As outside tensions intensify, private conflicts within the neighborhood become impossible to ignore.

At its heart, the novel explores the emotional distance people create to protect themselves — and the consequences of allowing silence, resentment, and misunderstanding to grow unchecked. Blending women’s fiction with psychological insight and domestic suspense, A Safe Distance is an intimate story about friendship, marriage, vulnerability, and the fragile connections that hold communities together.

• Emotionally complex women’s fiction
• Contemporary suburban dramas
• Stories about friendship and marriage
• Character-driven fiction with psychological depth
• Novels exploring family tension and social pressure
• Domestic suspense grounded in emotional realism

Amazon: https://a.co/d/01YHgRWc

“Get ready to smile and sob.” — Goodreads reviewer 

“The two women are so real, emotions and incidents are raw.” — Goodreads reviewer 

“Bernadette Walsh is a master at blending all these emotions into unforgettable stories.” — Goodreads reviewer 

The novel was inspired by the emotional and psychological pressures many families experienced during the pandemic — isolation, fear, strained relationships, and the ways ordinary lives changed under extraordinary circumstances.

Yes, but the novel is ultimately more about relationships than the pandemic itself. The story explores friendship, marriage, parenting, resentment, and emotional distance during a time of uncertainty and stress. Also since I wrote this book during the early days of the pandemic, this pandemic is fictionalized to a large extent since I didn't know exactly what would happen during the real pandemic.

A Safe Distance is contemporary women’s fiction with elements of domestic drama and psychological suspense.

The novel centers on Ellie Barrett and Joanna Fox, two suburban neighbors whose strained friendship becomes increasingly complicated as outside pressures and personal tensions intensify.

The book explores:

• friendship and resentment
• marriage under pressure
• motherhood and caregiving
• emotional isolation
• suburban family life
• vulnerability and trust
• the hidden tensions beneath ordinary relationships

A Safe Distance is strongly character-driven, focusing on emotional realism, complicated relationships, and the internal struggles of the characters.

The title reflects both physical and emotional distance — the ways people protect themselves from vulnerability, conflict, and intimacy, especially during uncertain times. It is also a reference that during the pandemic we had to keep 6 feet apart--a safe distance.

Absolutely. The novel raises timely and relatable questions about friendship, marriage, parenting, fear, and emotional connection that often lead to rich discussion.

1. How did the pandemic setting affect your understanding of the characters and their decisions?
2. Ellie and Joanna maintain a polite but emotionally distant relationship at the beginning of the novel. Why do you think their friendship deteriorated over time?
3. Discuss the idea of emotional distance in the novel. Which characters create barriers to protect themselves, and why?
4. How does the novel portray the pressures placed on mothers during times of crisis?
5. Which relationship in the novel felt the most authentic to you? Why?
6. The novel explores how small resentments can build over time. Did any of the conflicts surprise you, or did they feel inevitable?
7. How did isolation and uncertainty change the behavior of the characters?
8. Discuss the role of marriage in the novel. Which couples seemed strongest? Which relationships were already fragile before the crisis began?
9. Did your opinion of Ellie or Joanna change throughout the story?
10. How does Bernadette Walsh portray suburban life differently from the idealized version people often imagine?
11. The novel focuses heavily on emotional realism. Were there moments or situations that felt particularly familiar or relatable to you?
12. What does the novel suggest about friendship between women, especially during stressful periods of life?
13. How do fear and anxiety influence the choices characters make throughout the novel?
14. Did the ending feel hopeful to you? Why or why not?
15. If the events of the pandemic had not occurred, do you think the tensions between the characters would eventually have surfaced anyway?