Robyn Carr Whispering Rock

Whispering Rock

Robyn Carr

Mira, Jun 2007, $6.99

ISBN 0778324494

After being injured on the job, womanizer and twice divorced LAPD officer Mike Valenzuela recuperates in the Redwoods town Virgin River, where his Marine buddies Jack Sheridan (see VIRGIN RIVER) and Marine John "Preacher" Middleton (see SHELTER MOUNTAIN) own a bar and grill. His plan is simple, heal and return to work. However, everything changes with one phone call from Jack; his district attorney sister Brie was brutally raped by Jerome Powell, who she tried to recently prosecute for violent crimes, but lost.

Though frightened Brie physically heals but emotionally is off her game. However, she knows that and vows to see that Powell goes to prison as she refuses to take rubbish from him. Meanwhile Mike seems to always be there for her. As Mike becomes the Virgin River police, he and Brie fall in love in spite of their marital failures.

The third and final Virgin River tale is a wonderful compassionate romantic suspense with the focus being on Brie, recovering from the rape. As with the previous thrillers, the story line intelligently handles a traumatic social issue that becomes very personal when it happens to you. Robyn Carr provides a great final to one of the best insightful character driven sagas of the year as these real people struggle with harrowing personal problems caused by brutes intruding, in this case physically leading to mentally, into their lives.

Harriet Klausner