Dorothea Benton Frank, Pawleys Island

Dorothea Benton Frank, Pawleys Island - On idyllic PAWLEYS ISLAND, outside of food, not much excites fifty-five-year-old Huey Valentine, but the work of newcomer Rebecca Simms does. He displays her paintings at the show of another artist and sells some of them. Rebecca admits to Huey's social companion, retired matrimony attorney widow Abigail Thurmond, that her spouse Nat obtained a divorce in which she was proclaimed an unfit mother and has custody of their two children. Huey's octogenarian mother goes berserk when she hears this injustice and demands her son and Abigail fix it.

Abigail agrees to represent Rebecca in court although this is her first case since her spouse died a few years ago, not long after their son passed away. She begins making inquiries into what happened, the behavior of Huey, and whether the city of Charleston committed a major faux pas as she plans to prove her client is the one fit to raise the kids, not her ex who has custody. Along the way, Abigail regains her lust for life.

Dorothea Benton Frank's latest South Carolina, low country character study is an engaging tale that starts at a leisurely pace as readers meet the prime players. Towards the middle of the book, the plot changes into a legal thriller in which Nat learns the hard way about women scorned. Though Nat is an extreme loser between pornography, a bimbo, and offering to pay for "enhancements" for his daughter to have twin edges when she tries out as a Clemson cheerleader, contemporary fans will enjoy this trip to Charleston and Pawleys Island.

Berkley, May 2005, $24.95

ISBN: 0425202712

Harriet Klausner