Karen Young Belle Point

Belle Point

Karen Young

Mira, Jun 2006, $6.99

ISBN: 0778323102

At a charity event to raise money in which her husband St. Louis Jacks star pitcher Buck Whitaker is the featured speaker, a distracted Anne knows she must tell her spouse that she is ten weeks pregnant. When she starts bleeding, she informs Buck that she is carrying his child and needs to go home; he persuades her to let him give his talk then they will depart. On the way home he acts as if he does not want the child just before they crash when he swerves to avoid a deer in the road. She miscarries.

Unable to forgive Buck for his behavior before the accident, Anne leaves him to return to their hometown of Tallulah, Mississippi where she hopes to heal and determine whether she should divorce him. To pass time, Anne begins looking into the history of BELLE POINT, the plantation owned by her husband's family. Her investigation begins to reveal secrets that frighten her mother-in-law; who fears her standing as a pillar of society would crumble so she will do anything to insure they remain buried. Buck follows Anne home because he loves his wife and wants her back in his life, but first he knows he needs to gain her forgiveness with how he reacted when she announced her pregnancy.

BELLE POINT is an exciting regional romantic suspense in which much of the action comes late in the story line as readers learn early what motivates the lead couple, especially their separation and what inflames the key support players. The story line starts out slow until Anne finds strange connections between Viet Nam and 1985 involving the name Baker; As Anne plays amateur sleuth, readers will wonder what she will ultimately uncover and whether she and Buck, still in love, can reconcile in this fine Magnolia State thriller.

Harriet Klausner