In Rosenberg's entertaining if at times overheated fourth entry in her suspense series featuring Ventura County, Calif., judge Lily Forrester, a direct sequel to 2009's The Cheater, flashbacks allow readers unfamiliar with the previous book to easily follow the action. Several years earlier, Lily and her daughter, Shana, were raped and their attacker eluded capture. This and subsequent traumas have left Shana in a precarious emotional state. When Shana has a meltdown after her boyfriend dumps her, Lily picks Whitehall, a private psychiatric hospital outside San Francisco, out of a phone book. Without referrals or further investigation, Lily takes her daughter to Whitehall, where Shana voluntarily commits herself. Unfortunately, Whitehall is ruled by a rich, handsome inmate, who's a sociopathic killer, and a greedy doctor who'll do anything to land an insured patient. Meanwhile, Lily's friend FBI special agent Mary Stevens and her partner, Brooks East, investigate suicide clubs in a somewhat more plausible subplot. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Superior Court Judge Lily Forrester of Ventura County, California, still lives with guilt over the long-ago rape of her daughter, Shana, and herself and its aftermath. Sixteen years and two failed marriages later, Lily is happily engaged to Judge Christopher Rendell and presiding over a sensational case. But Shana, now 28 and months from her degree at Stanford Law, is so distraught over being dumped by her boyfriend that Lily, on a hasty midtrial visit, takes her to a private psychiatric hospital, Whitehall, where Shana mistakenly commits herself. Meanwhile, FBI Special Agent Mary Stevens, who connected with Lily in The Cheater (2009), gets transferred from Quantico to Ventura to pursue a serial killer who is apparently murdering members of suicide clubs. Throughout, flashbacks rehash the Forrester family's earlier traumas, while the main narrative centers on the abuses Shana undergoes at Whitehall and her and a fellow patient's mutual attraction. The two plot strands connect in an adrenaline-producing finale, but the melding of events from the previous book and contemporary action never quite gels. For series fans only.--Leber, Michele Copyright 2010 Booklist