Don't Go

February 4, 2013
This stand-alone from Scottoline (Come Home) effectively tugs at the emotions even as it verges on the melodramatic. Mike Scanlon, a reservist in the Army Medical Corps serving in Afghanistan, is allowed to return for one week to his suburban Philadelphia home to bury his wife, Chloe, who apparently died in an odd household accident. Overcome with grief, Mike realizes that he’s a stranger to his seven-month-old daughter—and that Chloe was hiding a shocking secret. After a horrific war injury brings him home for good, Mike begins an out-of-control campaign to uncover Chloe’s secret life, risking the loss of custody of his daughter, his health, and his own freedom. When Chloe’s best friend is murdered, Mike suspects that his wife’s death was no accident. Mike’s Job-like trials push the boundaries of believability, but his journey to make peace with himself and be a father to his daughter will resonate with many readers. 300,000-copy first printing; author tour. Agent: Molly Friedrich, Friedrich Literary Agency.

February 15, 2013
A cascade of melodramatic reversals for a podiatric surgeon, who returns from Afghanistan to find even more trouble waiting at home. Dr. Mike Scanlon's wife, art teacher Chloe Voulette, begged him not to leave her and their new daughter, Emily, when his Army Medical Corps reserve unit was called up. Now it's too late for him to tell Chloe he's sorry. Tipsy from the vodka she's been hitting, she accidentally stabs her arm while she's loading the dishwasher and bleeds out on her kitchen floor. The 10-day emergency leave the Army allows Mike is just long enough for him to make arrangements for Chloe's funeral, satisfy himself that Emily is in the best of hands with Chloe's sister, Danielle, and her lawyer husband, Bob Ridgeway, and discover that Emily has no idea who he is and doesn't like him. Back in Helmand province, Mike endures a bone-jolting series of calamities that send him back stateside, this time for good. But his second homecoming is no happier than his first. The job he's been promised by his old partner is a far cry from his old job; Emily still cries whenever he picks her up; he realizes that Chloe had been having an affair; and her best friend, fellow teacher Sara Hambera, is murdered before she can tell him anything about who Chloe's lover might have been. Unfortunately, Mike reacts to all these shocks like a bull in a china shop. In a trice, he's been arrested for assault, sued by the man he thinks cuckolded him and threatened with the permanent loss of Emily to Danielle and Bob. In the hands of many another novelist, this nightmare would spiral further down to a grim conclusion, but Scottoline (Come Home, 2012, etc.) has a fairy-tale ending in reserve. The author's recent crossover novels have mostly featured imperiled or hard-used heroines like those of Mary Higgins Clark. This time Scottoline varies the pattern by making her heroine a hero. A surprisingly successful attempt to retool the damsel-in-distress formula.

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February 1, 2013
Writing for the first time from a male perspective, Scottoline tackles a number of heavy issues in this story of a soldier returning from Afghanistan who is forced to deal with even more dire crises on the home front. Mike Scanlon finds his skills as a podiatric surgeon in increasing demand in Afghanistan as a result of the proliferation of IEDs and feels grateful to be able to help so many wounded soldiers. Then he learns his wife has died as the result of a freak household accident, leaving their newborn baby girl without a mother. Overwhelmed, he agrees to let his sister-in-law and her husband take over parenting duties, and re-ups for another tour. But a devastating injury sends him home once again, where he learns a shocking secret about his wife, one that presents the possibility that her death was not an accident. Although this novel feels, at times, overstuffed with issues and superficial in its treatment of PTSD, it will no doubt find a ready audience among Scottoline's enormous fan base. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Best-selling Scottoline's hugely popular Rosato & Associates series as well as the success of her recent stand-alone titles guarantee an audience for this one.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)