Violation

To find her abducted son, rape victim Thea Aubin must uncover the truth about the horrific crime she can't bear to remember. North explores both the real-world and the inner battles of a woman, a man, and a maturing boy. The book is both a fast-paced mystery and a multilevel human drama about regaining the capacity for trust. Ed Sala not only delivers all of this, but also makes the reader care about the characters. Some narrators grab your attention with a sonorous voice and intimate tone but never manage to capture the sense and feeling of a book. Ed Sala captures every nuance from page one, and his gritty voice "grows on you." K.C. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine

August 31, 1998
Raising her teenaged son in a remote Humboldt County, Calif., town, rape victim Althea Auben begins this involving novel of psychological suspense as a reclusive computer researcher hiding from her past. When her son runs away to Thea's Long Island hometown to try to discover his father's identity, Thea's landlord and neighbor, Jack Verrity, a sensitive ex-cop struggling with his own memories, joins her in going after the boy. Together they face the dark secrets in Thea's past and in the process uncover a deadly North Shore real estate scam. The reader easily stays a step ahead of the anxious mother and her detective friend, yet the narrative proves affecting as North (Thief of Souls) provides an empathetic portrait of a rape victim's continuing torment, especially when Thea discovers that her life is not the only one that was shattered, and that a tangled web of secrets still exists. Occasionally, the story defies reason. Why would the detective read a printout of Thea's erotic fantasies (shared in an online chat room) and not suspect trouble? Still, readers absorbed in Thea's transformation from terrified dropout to unswerving avenger won't care about a few lapses of logic. Rights: Aaron Priest Agency.