Little Lamb Lost

April 6, 2009
Fenton puts her experiences as a social worker to good use in her promising debut. After toddler Michael Hennessy dies of a drug overdose, Claire Conover, of the Birmingham, Ala., Department of Human Services, doesn’t believe the boy’s mother, Ashley, spiked his sippy cup. Ashley, who has a history of hardcore drugs and booze, had been working too hard to get clean in order to regain custody of Michael. Determined to find the real killer, Claire sets out on a course that could cost her career or even her life. Fenton paces her straightforward plot well, but her real strength is in the way she develops her characters’ relationships. A number of secondary players—an investigative reporter and a guy who knows his way around a computer—pave the way for a sequel. With her fine ear for regional speech, Fenton may do for Birmingham what Margaret Maron has done for rural North Carolina.

May 1, 2009
Devastated by the death of a young boy and the arrest of his mother for his murder, social worker Claire Connover cannot let the case go and finds herself in danger when she learns too much. Well done.

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2009
When two-year-old Michael Hennessey dies from a suspicious drug overdose, with his ex-addict single mother, Ashley, a client of the Jefferson County, Alabama, Department of Human Services, social worker Claire Conover finds her faith in her own judgment crumbling. As Ashleys case worker, Claire is blindsided by Michaels death, loathe to believe Ashleys confession of the negligent homicide of her son and unable to let the case go despite being ordered to do so. Suspicious that Michael was murdered and feeling obligated to the child, Claire doggedly pursues leads that take her to the top echelons of Birmingham society, helped by computer whiz Grant Summerville, who becomes more than a friend. Warned repeatedly to leave the case alone, Claire puts more than her career in jeopardy. A relentless social worker makes an intriguing amateur sleuth, and Birmingham offers a fresh take on the New South as a setting for crime fiction. With this solid debut, Fentonherself a social workerhas set the stage for a promising new series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)