Susan Crandall, Seeing Red

Seeing Red

Susan Crandall

Forever, Feb 2009, $6.99

ISBN: 0446178578

Fifteen years ago on Belle Island, South Carolina, Laura Greene was kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and murdered. Her family blames Nate Vance, a boy from the wrong side of the tracks who wanted Laura as his girlfriend. Laura's cousin teenage Ellis defends Nate; insisting he was innocent and in court on her fourteenth birthday testified against Hollis Alexander, who went to prison.

In the present, many islanders still believe the wrong man went to jail as they insist Nate killed Laura; out of prison on parole Hollis bribes reporter Wayne Carr to investigate the case as he swears he was innocent. He also goes after the Greene family that never emotionally recovered from the trauma of the homicide. Nate returns to Belle Island after being away for years, but is no longer the helpless teen being driven off by the haughty Greene clan; he is also attracted to Ellis, a schoolteacher. Ellis reciprocates though she has been seeing Rory for several years. As Ellis and Nate dance around their feelings, they begin to uncover what really happened fifteen years ago; however, this is one time the truth will not set them free because someone wants the past to remain as is and is willing to kill to insure secrets remain concealed.

This is an exciting romantic suspense in which the victim's family never received closure although someone went to jail for the crime; as most of the Greene brood believes like most islanders that the wrong man went to jail. The action-packed storyline moves briskly from the moment Ellis and Nate see each other for the first since just after the tragedy and never slows down as Hollis sets in motion his scheme. Readers will enjoy this tense thriller as the truth will set you free if it doesn't kill you.

Harriet Klausner