Nobody Knows

November 4, 2002
Balancing compelling characters and intricate plotting in her trademark beach read style, Clark's suspense-filled latest finds 39-year-old television reporter Cassie Sheridan wracked with guilt over her part in a young rape victim's suicide. Named in a wrongful death suit and demoted to the Miami bureau after 15 years as a Washington, D.C., power player, Cassie rues the sacrifices that cost her her marriage and her relationship with her teenage daughter. While covering an impending hurricane, the newswoman befriends Vincent, a latchkey 11-year-old who's just discovered a severed hand on the sandy shores of Siesta Key. The author's own background as a writer and producer at CBS News, paired with reader Tunno's convincing rendition of downtrodden Cassie, imparts vocational verisimilitude. Tunno also skillfully narrates the naïve Vincent, who steals a ring from the corpse to help his impoverished family and unwittingly puts himself and Cassie in the path of a serial killer whose M.O. includes wearing a grease paint clown mask. But despite the professional unabridged recording and fast pacing, translation to audio doesn't fair as well when Tunno is called on to voice a pornography mogul or the killer; she's unable to capture the grittier, masculine aspects of the book. Based on the St. Martin's Press hardcover (Forecasts, July 1).

July 1, 2002
CBS News
writer and producer Clark (Close to You) returns with a fast-paced but superficial page-turner featuring a down-on-her-luck newswoman and a precocious young boy. Cassie Sheridan's career is flourishing until she reveals on national TV that a serial rapist attacked the FBI director's daughter; the girl commits suicide and Cassie is demoted to a post in Sarasota, Fla. Estranged from her family, she's stuck reporting on hurricanes. But there's another storm brewing: young Vincent Baylor finds a human hand on the beach and takes a ring from the finger, figuring the money will help his overworked mom and sick little brother, but the killer (who also happens to be the rapist) wants the ring back and will kill again to get it. It turns out there were loads of men who might have wanted to harm the victim, porn star Marilee Quiñones, including the smarmy manager of a boy band, an antisocial eye doctor and one of her co-stars. Cassie strikes up a friendship with Vincent that puts her in the path of the killer as a hurricane heads up the coast. Though the plot is brisk and absorbing, it's a bit facile overall and Clark is too heavy-handed with the red herrings. Worse yet, everything is weighed down by clichés and a slack prose style, as evidenced by a profusion of lines like "Yep, life could turn on a dime." Author tour.(Aug.)Forecast:Clark's fans might be willing to overlook the flaws of her latest and go along for the ride. They can check out a teaser chapter in the paperback of her bestselling
Close to You before getting on board.

April 15, 2002
Having overstepped her bounds, Washington, DC-based legal correspondent Cassie Sheridan is exiled to Florida, where a corpse on the beach brings out her reportorial skills even as a hurricane looms. Clark, a producer and writer for CBS News, should know her stuff.

Copyright 2002 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2002
KEY News justice correspondent Cassie Sheridan is at the top of the heap professionally, reporting daily from Washington, D.C. As the first female director of the FBI announces a nationwide manhunt for a serial rapist and his potential inclusion on the Most Wanted list, Cassie seems to be the only reporter to wonder why a serial rapist with only three victims deserves this much high-level attention. She breaks the news that one of the victims is the daughter of said director, then is unprepared for the girl's suicide and the fallout. Cassie and KEY are sued, and KEY reassigns Cassie to the Miami area, where she goes from being the hottest ticket in broadcast journalism to a glorified weather girl. Egocentric Cassie also has to deal with the potential failure of her marriage. But as a hurricane approaches and a dead woman's hand washes ashore, Cassie pieces together a bizarre puzzle with pieces tying back to the serial rapist in this light suspense from the author of " Close to You" (2001).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)