My Lost Daughter

In Rosenberg's fourth book in the suspense series featuring California judge Lily Forrester, Lily is engaged to a fellow judge. Flashbacks fill listeners in on prior traumatic events that have resulted in Lily's decision to admit her daughter to a psychiatric hospital. But the hospital, it turns out, has a nefarious director who's more interested in insurance than in patients' needs. A subplot involves a friend of Lily's who sets out to get to the bottom of a "suicide club." Coleen Marlo engages listeners with distinct vocal portraits of the characters. Initially, she seems somewhat detached, but as the story progresses, Marlo brings more animation to the narrative. V.P. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

December 20, 2010
Rosenberg's clunky women-in-jeopardy yarn features series heroine California Superior Court Judge Lily Forrester interrupting a sensational trial to rush to aid her daughter, a Stanford Law School student she fears has suffered a mental breakdown. She deposits the depressed girl at a private psychiatric hospital she finds in the phone book. Naturally, it turns out to be Patient Abuse Central. In a parallel plot, FBI Agent Mary Stevens searches for a serial killer who's slaying members of suicide clubs—and the two strands come together. Perhaps influenced by the author's florid fiction, including detailed sex scenes only a gynecologist could love, Coleen Marlo goes heavy on the melodrama. Judge Forrester is in an almost constant state of breathless panic, her daughter is a weepy mess, and her ex-husband sounds as if he's choking on venom. It's a pretty rough 14 hours for all concerned. A Forge hardcover.