Wednesday, August 01, 2007

dead boring

Title: Dead Silence
Author: Brenda Novak

Grace grew up in small-town Mississippi with her mother, brother, step-father (a preacher of some sort), and step-sister. Her step-father disappeared mysteriously, and the town blamed her mother. Grace went away, made good with her life, and became an Assistant DA somewhere. She came back to town for a while because she’s having a life crisis – boyfriend wants to get married, and she can’t commit because she feels guilty for having helped kill step-dad – because he was sexually abusing her. Her mom and brother helped bury the body, and step-sis never knew, and still thinks he’ll be back (she wasn’t aware of the abuse). Grace makes friends with a young boy who lives down the street, not knowing that he’s the son of the former town golden boy, Kennedy – quarterback, etc. – she went to school with and was one of very few classmates she didn’t sleep with (acting out because of abuse, etc.).
He totally falls for her, she fights because she doesn’t want to bring him down, and the whole town thinks she and/or her family killed the preacher, but eventually they fall in love. Collateral damages along the way include her fiancé (he had an affair with someone else while she was back in the hometown) and a lot of Kennedy’s friends (esp. the nephew of missing step-dad who thinks Kennedy’s betraying him by sleeping with Grace because he totally blames her and tries to attack her). The story ends with Grace and Kennedy in love, and he knows about the abuse and kindof about the death; the body’s still buried somewhere on the old family farm, but Grace’s brother moved it after she left, so she doesn’t know where it is. And then there’s a preview for the next book in the series (sigh) where the town’s police chief’s daughter moves back home – she’s a cold case detective from some big city, and she decides to focus on the missing step-dad case, which means, of course, she’ll fall in love with big brother and have the moral conflict between prosecuting true love and covering up the death again (wow, I’m brilliant).

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posted by ket at 10:16 AM

1 Comments:

Blogger reyn said...

I think you just crossed the line between "reader" and "writer," and I can't wait for your first trilogy involving a sexy cat burglar, hunky special forces types, a sentient computer, and a talking cat. Wait--no, you hated the cats. Skip that part.

8/01/2007 10:41 AM  

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