THE RITUAL BATH by Faye Kellerman

FIC

KELLERMAN

Detective Peter Decker is sent to investigate a rape in the sheltered community of a Los Angeles yeshiva. He finds the Orthodox Jewish residents to be uncooperative, but the beautiful widow Rina Lazarus is helpful. The attraction between them complicates everything, especially when it seems the rapist's intended target was and still is Rina. The many details of Orthodox Jewish life are fascinating. This first book is a terrific start to the now-established series.

THE LIGHTKEEPER'S DAUGHTER by Iain Lawrence

FIC

LAWRENCE

When seventeen-year-old Squid returns from a four-year absence to visit her parents on their isolated island off the coast of British Columbia, she brings her three-year-old daughter. The account of her visit is interspersed with the story of what happened during the last year Squid lived on the island, leading to death of her brother and her own departure.

Though there are hints that incest might have been involved, it was not. The true story is nonetheless heartbreaking, involving family dysfunction, statutory rape, and suicide. The writing is beautiful; the story is not, though is is certainly memorable.

THE DEVIL'S FEATHER by Minette Walters

FIC

WALTERS

International war correspondent Connie Burns suspects a British mercenary with many aliases of the rapes and vicious murders of several women in Sierra Leone. When Burns is transferred to Iraq, she is taken captive by this man (aka Keith MacKenzie, who is now training Iraqi security forces) tortured and then released after three days.

Trying to recover from this devastating experience, Burns returns to England and rents an isolated house in the Dorset countryside, with the certainty that MacKenzie will come looking for her.

This is an interesting psychological thriller which incorporates several contemporary issues.

LICK CREEK by Brad Kessler

FIC

KESSLER

Emily Jenkins and her widowed mother Ada live in the hills of West Virginia in the 1920s. Power is coming to the valley along with “electric men” who make a deal with the women for the right of way on their land. All turns to dust when the supervisor, Robert Daniels, plies her with liquor and rapes her. Overwhelmed with rage, Emily vows revenge on the power company through acts of sabotage.
Her life is altered when a young lineman, Joseph Gershon, is struck by lightning and brought to the Jenkins house to recuperate. His tales of immigration from Russia enthrall Emily and the two fall in love. Only Emily’s obsessive hatred for Daniels stands in the way of their happiness. A dramatic conclusion brings the story full circle.