Guarded Passions

June 10, 2013
In this straightforward psychological thriller from romance author Harris (A Brighter Dawn), painfully shy Maureen Flynn is still struggling, 16 years after the crime, with the memories of having been sexually assaulted by classmates in the small English town of Benbury. Flynn is surprised but pleased to receive a proposal from Philip Harmer, the professor for whom she works as an assistant, but is shattered when Harmer withdraws his marriage offer after learning of her rape. Full of uncontrollable rage, she forms the perfect plan for revenge, and when a Benbury High School teacher is found viciously stabbed to death, the police are, quite literally, clueless. When a newsagent is killed in precisely the same manner, the pressure increases on Det. Insp. Ruth Morgan and her partner, Det. Sgt. Paddy Hardcastle, who sense the two murders are connected. Despite bland characterizations and a strong reliance on coincidence, the story engages throughout. Agent: Caroline Sheldon, Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency (U.K.).