Helpless

Starred review from December 5, 2011
If Palmer’s second thriller, after 2011’s Delirious, doesn’t generate tingling spinal columns, then nothing will. From the moment 15-year-old Lindsey Wells texts a nude photo of herself to a boy she hopes will take her to the prom, all holy hell breaks loose. The photo becomes a metaphorical chicken whose Internet spawn come home to roost not just in Lindsey’s backyard but in the backyards of her soccer coach, divorced dad Tom Hawkins; Hawkins’s daughter and her best friend, Jill; and even strangers from her hometown of fictional Shilo, N.H., all the way to Boston and beyond. While Lindsey and a few other girls are the catalyst, it’s the life of coach Hawkins—a man with a past—that’s thrown into turmoil when that past re-emerges with a vengeance. Superbly crafted characters and catchy prose will keep readers turning the pages, though some parents may feel like reaching for the Prozac. Agent: Meg Ruley.