(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

Twenty-three years ago, Misty Banner was brutally slashed to death in her home in Virtue Falls, Washington. Her husband was convicted of the murder. Their four year old daughter Elizabeth witnessed the crime, but has no memory of the killing. Now, two decades later, Elizabeth is back in Virtue Falls. She soon discovers her father is innocent. The real killer is still out there. And her investigation has stirred dark and deadly resentments that could provoke in another bloody murder—her own...

There is a saying along the lines of "You can never go home again"...and that should be true for novels. Books involving someone returning to their hometown after a long period should be banned. It is now so overdone, we know the resolution before we get anywhere near the end.

Now, that's not to say that this book is bad - it isn't. It just stands as a prime example of the genre and style. There is enough plot here to consider this book a winner, but for me, it just falls flat in the other basics: the pacing was really off; the main characters were a little one-dimensional (but the secondary characters were well-done.) I wasn't impressed with Elizabeth's "smarts" - and her need to jump into bed with "her man" every ten pages (that is an exaggeration but it is how it felt by the end.)

Ultimately, I think if more time had been devoted to the actual plot and not the sex scenes, this could very well have been a far more engaging thriller for me.


Paul
ARH

This review (scroll down to last item) was part of a regional-books package that I reviewed in The Seattle Times.

“The Beekeeper’s Ball,” by Susan Wiggs (Harlequin/Mira, $24.95; 360 pages).
The Hot Zone,” by Jayne Castle (Jayne Ann Krentz) (Penguin Group USA, $7.99; 352 pages).
“The Benedict Bastard,” by Cate Campbell (Kensington Books, $15; 361 pages).
“Virtue Falls,” by Christina Dodd (St. Martin’s Press, $25.99; 448 pages).
September is here, bringing with it a rich list of fall books by local Northwest authors exploring new twists on some familiar settings that have served them well in the past. Joining them is a new novel that’s the first in a projected series about a seismically unstable fictitious Washington coastal town.
“The Beekeeper’s Ball,” the second book in Susan Wiggs’ “Bella Vista Chronicles,” continues the saga begun in “The Apple Orchard” with an intriguing story that moves between the California wine country of today and the harrowing period of the Danish resistance during World War II. The narrative device here is the introduction of a writer, Cormac O’Neill, who is interviewing the elderly Magnus Johansen – owner of the lovely Bella Vista farm – about his past as an orphaned youth working to help foil the Nazi occupiers of Denmark.
Magnus’ two granddaughters, each unaware of the other’s existence for almost all 29 years of their lives, are the real focus here; Tess’ story was told in “The Apple Orchard,” and now it is Isabel who takes center stage as she plans to establish a destination culinary school at Bella Vista (and tries to conceal her growing attraction to the writer). Wiggs, the author of more than 40 novels, has a sure hand with the narrative, weaving together past and present as the family secrets gradually unroll.
The mysterious and otherworldly “Rainshadow Island” is the site of “The Hot Zone,” the third novel in this series by Seattle’s bestselling Jayne Ann Krentz (writing as Jayne Castle, her nom de plume for futuristic romance). Her resourceful heroine, Sedona Snow, is a woman with an unhappy past who has just escaped from captivity in a dangerous labyrinth of underground catacombs on the island.
Disowned in the past by her dysfunctional family and dumped by her indifferent husband, Sedona is surprised to discover now that they’re all suddenly trying to get in touch with her. So is Cyrus Jones, who is sort of the new sheriff in town, and who is not the least bit daunted by Sedona’s ability to spontaneously ignite and control fires – particularly since she has also ignited his romantic interest. With the help of a “dust bunny” (a furry but potentially deadly creature named Lyle, who is fond of Halloween candy), the plot advances at paranormal speed to a predictably satisfying finale. Along the way, Krentz’s trademark deadpan humor adds some levity to the proceedings, which include encounters with monsters covered in mirrored scales (and monsters of the human variety, as well).
Local writer Cate Campbell has produced her third novel in the “Benedict Hall” series set in 1920s Seattle, where the resourceful physician Margot Benedict faces new challenges within her socially prominent but troubled family. In “The Benedict Bastard,” her dissolute brother Preston Benedict continues to wreak havoc – this time on a naïve young woman who falls prey to his practiced charm.
A few years later, when Dr. Margot is working at a Seattle orphanage, she sees blond little toddler who looks uncannily like the wicked Preston (who, after several crimes and the attempted murder of Margot, is now incarcerated in an institution, drugged and bound but still unrepentant). When Preston confirms that he did indeed father a child, the hunt for the “Benedict bastard,” who has since left the orphanage, begins in earnest.
Along the way, the pathfinding Margot and her allies endure heartbreaking episodes revealing the medical/sexual ignorance of gently-bred young women, the disgraceful child-labor laws, the pervasive racial and gender biases, and the ongoing battle to save and protect unwanted children.
The fictitious coastal town of Virtue Falls is the setting for an eponymous novel by Christina Dodd -- the first in a projected series about a locale populated by colorful characters and striking (if volatile) scenery. The major earthquake and resulting tsunami – all caught on film by geologist Elizabeth Banner – leave the remote town in chaos, a perfect setting for mayhem with disruptions in power, transportation, and supplies of all kinds.
Traumatized in her childhood as a witness to her mother’s death (by scissors, no less) apparently at the hand of her father, Elizabeth has long believed in his innocence. When the Virtue Falls earthquake reveals a horrifying disclosure 23 years later to the adult Elizabeth, the gritty plot heats up, with the return to town of Elizabeth’s ex-husband (an FBI agent), some despicable media types, a suspicious sheriff, and – just possibly – the real killer of Elizabeth’s mother, whose existence has been hinted at with a series of unsolved stabbings. Along the way there’s a raft of colorful characters and an ending you will see coming more surely than a gigantic tsunami wave, but it’s enjoyable all the same.