Widower John O'Rourke, the father of two, could have a chance at happiness with KateDif only he weren't defending a vicious serial killer. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Marine biologist Kate Harris travels from Washington, D.C., to Connecticut on a mission of love. She is searching for her missing sister, Willa, who disappeared six months earlier, and whom Kate believes might be a victim of a serial killer whose lawyer is John O'Rourke. When Kate arrives at O'Rourke's house, he believes she is the new baby-sitter for his motherless children. After she explains her mission, she asks John to ask his client if he ever met her sister. Their brief encounter has a profound effect on John and his children. The children feel a kinship with Kate, and John, who has, like Kate, suffered a tragic betrayal, contemplates breaking lawyer-client confidentiality to find out if her sister is an unknown victim of his client. As John helps her, pursuing answers to questions that put them both at grave risk, their lives become deeply entwined. Rice's lyrical style reveals the mind of a serial killer and humanizes the dilemma of justice by the book versus justice for victims. --Patty Engelmann

When Kate Harris shows up at his door right after someone throws a brick through his window, defense lawyer and single father John O'Rourke can't decide whether she brings help or more trouble. In fact, she brings both in Rice's latest family drama (after True Blue; Summer Light; etc.) set on the Connecticut shore. John's client Greg Merrill, "The Breakwater Killer," on death row for a series of brutal seaside murders, is responsible for both Kate's arrival and the brick: John's neighbors resent his efforts to save the confessed criminal's life, while Kate wants the lawyer's help in determining whether Merrill killed her sister, who disappeared much like the killer's other victims, but whose body has never been found. In her quest, Kate falls not just for John but also for his children, Maggie and Teddy, as they grieve for their mother, recently killed in a car accident. John grieves, too, so bothered by memories of his wife's adultery he does not see what his children see-that Kate is just what the O'Rourke family needs. Familiar Rice themes of sisterhood, loss and the healing power of love are spotlighted, but Rice's interest in the human psyche has its dark side as well, demonstrated by her creation of a rogue psychologist who subverts the ethics of his profession. Since Rice's fiction often serves as beach reading, it is appropriate that the shore scenes, including a cinematic climax in an old lighthouse, should be among the novel's strongest. Rice's heartfelt personal tone and the novel's cunningly deranged villain make this a smooth-flowing and fast-paced effort, with justice served all around at the satisfying if predictable conclusion. (Feb. 4) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Dark doings in Connecticut. Defense attorney John O'Rourke knew he'd win no popularity contests when he agreed to represent Greg Merrill, the serial killer who liked to torture his female victims until barely still alive, then leave them bound to breakwaters or jetties until high tide drowned them. John is uncomfortably aware that even his own children don't think much of his legal heroics on behalf of such a monster. Teenaged Teddy just wishes his father did something else for a living, but young Maggie still adores her handsome daddy. Both children are coping with the aftermath of their mother's recent death in a car accident-geez, wonders Teddy, can't Dad stop hanging around Death Row and come home once in a while? Several babysitters have come and gone, and John is desperate. No wonder he mistakes Kate Harris, a quiet stranger, for another candidate from the agency, while she's really a marine biologist looking for her missing sister Willa. Kate and John's life stories begin to unfold: John's wife had an affair with the local lighthouse keeper; Kate's sister had an affair with Kate's charming but irresponsible husband Andrew. So, yes, Kate and John are Free to Love Again. But first . . . where's Willa? Last seen at a local bed-and-breakfast, Willa has seemingly vanished. Danger lurks! Though Merrill is in prison, a copycat has struck, leaving his victim to drown on a breakwater. Will Willa be next? John consults psychiatrist Dr. Beckwith, who explains the inner workings of Merrill's disturbed mind and mentions a creepy new development: one of his patients, Caleb, is Merrill's pen pal. Caleb is the son of the lighthouse keeper-and an isolated lighthouse, Kate thinks, is an ideal place to hide someone, alive or dead. A gothic denouement on a stormy night leads up a twisting staircase into a secret dungeon. Formulaic but an effective blend of sentiment and suspense, somewhat less contrived than Rice's last (Summer Light, 2001).