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Summary
Summary
After stumbling upon a chilling small-town secret in South Carolina, a determined public defender must protect herself -- and her young son -- from those who want them dead.
Kendall Deaton pulls herself and her baby out of a wrecked car, and a mixture of courage and fear gets her to the top of a ravine, where she flags down help. But she doesn't dare reveal her true identity to the authorities. Instead, she plans her immediate escape, and her perilous flight begins.
Kendall, the best public defender in Prosper, South Carolina, has stumbled upon a chilling town secret, turning her marriage to one of Prosper's most powerful men into a living hell. Now Kendall is a terrified mother trying to save her child's life, a reluctant witness who knows too much about an insidious evil . . . and a woman surrounded by forces that will stop at nothing to protect what is "theirs."
Author Notes
Sandra Brown began her writing career in 1980. After selling her first book, she wrote a succession of romance novels under several pseudonyms, most of which remain in print. She has become one of the country's most popular novelists, earning the notice of Hollywood and of the critics. More than 60 of her books have appeared on the New York Times bestseller list. There are eighty million copies of her books in print, and her work has been translated into thirty-four languages. Prior to writing, she worked in commercial television as an on-air personality for PM Magazine and local news in Dallas. The parents of two, she and her husband now divide their time between homes in Texas and South Carolina.
(Publisher Provided)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Through a mosaic of tantalizing clues, premonitions and withheld identities, Brown (Charade) has created another page-turner to ensure her phenomenal popularity. This story pivots on the relationship between Kendall Deaton Burnwood, an idealistic public defender, and U.S. Marshal John McGrath, who is returning her to Prosper, S.C., as a material witness when their car crashes into a ravine in Georgia. With her three-month-old in tow, Kendall tries repeatedly to abandon John, who's hobbled by temporary amnesia and a leg injury. Kendall fears the town of Prosper for good reason: it's where she witnessed her husband and father-in-law, ringleaders of a white-supremacist vigilante group, ritualistically execute one of her clients. Evading Matt and Gibb Burnwood as well as the FBI, Kendall is also pursued across the South by the Crook twins, vengeful brothers of a disgruntled client whose idea of a celebration is a drinking binge and the deflowering of a 12-year-old niece. The push-pull generated by John's memory loss and Kendall's terror sparks a sexual tension that is deftly and vividly consummated, and secrets keep popping out until the last page. Brown's forte is glitch-free, all-over-the-map plotting, and her take on white-trashy behavior pushes just the right buttons. Major ad/promo/author tour. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Brown's romantic suspense/adventures (Charade, 1994, etc.) are sharpening in pace and punch, as evidenced in this tale of a public defender, a young mother, who sees something unspeakable in the South Carolina woods. In a freak car accident, a female passenger lies dead, while lawyer Kendall Deaton and her three-month-old son, Kevin, are alive and well. Also saved--rescued (regretfully) by Kendall--is husband Matt, now lame and amnesiac. As Kendall sneaks from the hospital, followed by Matt, flashbacks tell part of her story. Kendall had been granted the job of public defender in the small town of Prosper, South Carolina, where she met and married handsome Matt Burnwood, with the enthusiastic support of his jovial father, Gibb. Here and there, Kendall detects whiffs of something nasty about town (a cruel hog killing is a night's entertainment; a local knuckle-dragger whom Kendall defends is given an unusually severe sentence and dies), but she's reasonably content and delighted to find that she's pregnant. Then two events open her eyes--wide: Matt's erotic reunion with an old flame, and the truly horrible something she stumbles across in the woods. Kendall makes the mistake of rushing in to inform the local FBI agent--and now, marked as witness, she's on the road. How long will her ``husband'' remember? What of their former love-life? There's an unexpected meshing of emotional and erotic compulsions before the baddies slime their way to the Tennessee hideout to murder and proclaim. The Calvary comes in the nick, thanks to Kendall's pal Ricki Sue, a jolly nymph who ties up two naked Prosper locals by their pant legs. And in the switch of identities: Who's the real FBI agent? The real Matt Burnwood? The real Kendall Deaton? With identity puzzles and a chase, plus all the grue and woo: an entertainment bound for bestsellerdom. (First printing of ??; Literary Guild main selection; author tour)
Booklist Review
Kendall Deaton wants to be the best public defender the town of Prosper, South Carolina, has ever seen. She figures her dream is in the bag; she is married to the handsome newspaper editor, her father-in-law is a well-respected and popular man in the community, and the downtrodden of Prosper need a devoted advocate. What Kendall doesn't expect, though, is a town so entrenched in bigotry and "perfection" that she soon becomes the enemy, even to her new family. The book opens as Kendall pulls herself from the wreckage of a serious car accident. In the hospital, Kendall is careful not to disclose the true past of the seriously injured male driver; she tells the hospital personnel that he's her husband, and even though he's suffering from amnesia, he knows it is not true. Brown unfolds the story by alternating between the present and the past, keeping the reader guessing what's what all along. Though not an elegant writer, this prolific author writes a true page-turner that is recommended for fans of graphic crime fiction. (Reviewed May 01, 1995)0446516317Mary Frances Wilkens
Library Journal Review
Brown's 16 appearances on the New York Times Best Sellers list gives instant appeal to this forthcoming tale of a young woman who testifies against a pair of white supremacistswho just happen to be her ex-husband and father-in-law. A Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club main selection. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
