Not Guilty

March 25, 2002
Combining hand-wringing angst with wild improbabilities, Edgar-nominee MacDonald (The Unforgiven, etc.) plunges her heroine, Keely Bennett, into a nightmarish ride through domestic bliss gone bad. First husband Richard, who suffers from horrible migraines that nothing seems to help, finally commits suicide. Their nine-year-old son, Dylan, finds his bloody body. To the rescue comes lawyer Mark Weaver, a childhood friend of Richard's, who not only steers Keely through the legal and financial problems caused by Richard's suicide but also woos, weds and sweeps Keely away to a new life in generic St. Vincent's Harbor. Five years pass, giving Keely and Mark a delightful baby girl and a surly and troubled teenage son/stepson. Then a tragic accident leaves Keely widowed once again, and a vengeful district attorney, Maureen Chase, to whom Mark was engaged before he left her for Keely, is determined to find Dylan guilty of more than teenage negligence in order to get even. Everything seems stacked against Keely and her alienated son. As their situation grows more and more desperate, Keely becomes more and more determined to protect and defend Dylan. The heroine fighting against frightening odds and against unseen enemies is fine, and MacDonald rings some nice changes on her set of bells. But she also relies too heavily on unconvincing coincidences that seriously, perhaps fatally, weaken the suspense. 5-city author tour.

February 15, 2002
MacDonald likes to turn quiet, picturesque towns upside down with unspeakable crimes, and this time she wreaks her havoc on Ann Arbor. Keely Bennet comes home from work one day to find her husband dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound and her nine-year-old son cowering in the closet beside him. Several years later, her world is almost back on track; she has fallen in love, remarried, and given birth to a beautiful baby girl. But her son, Dylan, now 14, remains scarred by his dad's suicide and has grown sullen and resentful of his mom's new life. When violence strikes the family for a second time, all signs point to Dylan as the culprit. Are his depression and alienation just typical teenage emotions, or do they suggest something bigger? Keely vows to find out, letting nothing stand in her way, especially the assistant D.A., who happens to be her second husband's ex-fiancee. The first part of this novel--focused on the miserable plight of the heroine--is difficult to read, but those who don't give up in despair will find themselves in the grip of a tight, compelling thriller about how a woman who's come undone can muster the power to fight.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)