Lisa Teasley, Heat Signature

Heat Signature

Lisa Teasley

Bloomsbury, Aug 2006, $14.95

ISBN: 1596911018

Over a decade has pased since thirty-one-year-old half-Native American Sam Brown's African-American mother July was raped, tortured, and murdered. He never fully recovered from the trauma, though his stepfather has tried to help him move on as they share a home in Twenty-Nine Palms, California.

Sam becomes upset to learn that July's killer is being paroled. Taking leave from his nursing job at the nearby marine base, Sam begins a trek up the Pacific coast where he finds women for short affairs but even he is not sure what he seeks. As he continues towards Oregon, he thinks back to that horrid day when his mom was murdered and his beginning to know the darkness will never fully leave him, but that with good people, especially a caring woman, one can move on.

This is a psychological drama starring an individual who years after his mother's tragic death remains traumatized by the atrocity. Sam is human, as his worst nightmare becomes real again when his mom's rapist-killer is freed. His journey up the coast is one of personal searching and solace; women he meets help him to understand that you never forget nor do you ever stop loving, but you must keep on living; that is the best way to honor one's deceased loved ones. Lisa Teasley provides a deep, insightful character study.

Harriet Klausner