Hide Yourself Away
Mary Jane Clark
St. Martin's, Jul 2004, $19.95
ISBN: 0312323131

At KEY-TV, four interns compete for the position of assistant producer's for the news show KEY to America. The rivals are all in Newport trying to persuade producer, B.J. D'Elia to select them. The least confident, but most needy of the rivals is thirty-two year old single mom, Grace Callahan. Besides feeling inadequate next to the competitors, Grace feels guilty that she left her preadolescent daughter Lucy behind with her philandering former husband and his wife, especially since they want custody of the child.

Almost to the arrival of the news crew is the brutal murder of Madeleine Sloan, whose corpse was found at the bottom of the Forty Steps of the City by the Sea. Locals become concerned because fourteen years ago Madeleine's mother vanished, but now her remains have been found in an underground railroad tunnel. Soon the interns are murdered, leaving Grace the job by default; others also are killed while Grace tries to uncover the identity of the serial killer before she joins the rapidly rising count.

The Key to the latest news mystery is the beleaguered amazing Grace who serves as an unconfident fine center to the suspense thriller. However, the support cast is stereotyped so that they come from set moulds like the intern rivals regardless of race, national origin or gender seem identical viz a viz Grace. The storyline consists of short chapters so that every New Englander seems guilty of the murders, but that hurts the tale as too many souls become suspect and interchangeable. Still fans of Mary Jane Clark will enjoy Grace's efforts to be the last intern breathing.

Harriet Klausner