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Isabelle Carson is a grade school teacher and loving foster mom. She knows how much foster kids go through because she was one herself, and nearly became the victim of rape as a result. Grant Kent, the person who prevented her abuse, is the one person she can count on years later, when faced with yet another crisis. It doesn't hurt that he spent the last decade in the Special Forces. The crisis? Suicide, or at least that's how it looks on the surface. Several of Isabelle's friends have committed suicide in recent months, and Isabelle knows them as happy people who loved life and who would never make that decision. She suspects foul play, but can't convince the police to take on these cases. The one person who believes her, indeed shows up unannounced to help her, is Grant. The only problem is that he's on his way to a new job and life. Worse than that, Isabelle and Grant have feelings for each other, but Grant doesn't believe he can be a father and Isabelle wants to take in even more foster children. As Grant and Isabelle work to uncover the mystery, they are sidetracked into another dispute with the father of Isabelle's foster son, just released from prison and wanting his boy back at any cost. He is a dangerous man and, strangely enough, related to Grant and Isabelle's dead foster father. Moreover, it turns out that the friends who've ended up dead are also tied in to the foster home that they shared. While the book is heavy on the romance, it's the mystery that's more intriguing here. Incredibly, the author actually reveals the killer midway through the book, a daring move for a story that still has a long way to go to reach the end. Readers are witness to the missteps that Isabelle and Grant are making chasing the wrong person, adding a little spice to what, in many ways, is a predictable story path. There's no surprise that Isabelle and Grant will end up together, despite their problems, and so it is the minor characters and their behavior that turns out to be more engaging. Choosing to have the major and minor characters as subjects of the foster care system strengthens the book. It allows the characters to be vulnerable, keeping their emotions well hidden, or to serve as the victims of their own suppressed anger and hostility. This emotional complexity injects a bit of real compassion and understanding into what could otherwise have been an unremarkable story.
Reviewed by Christine Zibas, October 2008
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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