Woman in Red

April 23, 2007
I
n this page-turning novel, Alice Kessler, the married mother of two sons, is living on the fictional Grays Island, in the Pacific Northwest, when her eight-year-old son is run over while riding his bike. Alice is convinced the driver, Owen White, was drunk—though her husband, Randy, is not. Neither is the court system. So, on the day Alice loses her wrongful death lawsuit, she runs Owen down in the courthouse parking lot, crippling but not killing him. Alice serves nine years and returns to the island near-broke and hoping to reunite with her surviving son, Jeremy, now 16. (Her husband, Randy, has divorced her.) At the same time, Colin McGinty, an ex-Manhattan prosecutor, has returned to his dead artist grandfather’s island house after losing his wife in 9/11. Alice and Colin’s fates become bound with a little help from Colin’s inherited border collie and, more concretely, a portrait of Alice’s grandmother. Cutting between WWII-era depictions of the lives of Colin’s and Alice’s grandparents and the melodramatic present (including Alice’s son being accused of rape and Owen White’s machinations as island mayor), haute-romance veteran Goudge (Immediate Family
; Wish Come True
; etc.) unspools a predictable yet satisfying tale of survival and redemption.

June 1, 2007
Nine years after she was imprisoned for the attempted murder of Owen White, the drunk driver who had killed her son David, Alice Keesler is released and returns to Grays Island. Her husband has divorced her, second son Jeremy is a stranger, and Owen, in a wheelchair, is now mayor. Alice feels threatened by Owen when she opens a restaurant and, even worse, when Jeremy is accused of rape. For legal help, she turns to attorney Colin McGinty, whom she had met on the ferry to the island. He, too, has had his difficulties, having turned to alcohol after his wife was killed in the 9/11 attacks. Alice's and Colin's troubles parallel the earlier story of their grandparents. In 1942, artist William McGinty fell in love with Alice's grandmother, whose husband was fighting in the Pacific. Their love was revealed only in McGinty's masterpiece, the painting "Woman in Red". Goudge's ("Immediate Family") latest novel beautifully intertwines the two stories, two generations apart. Her characters are appealing both despite of and because of their problems. Recommended for all women's fiction collections.Lesa M. Holstine, Glendale P.L., AZ

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.