Forget Me Not

In Bowden's gothic-flavored contemporary romantic suspense novel (after Say Goodbye to Daddy), artist and gallery owner Lisa Cooper has an irrational fear of floods and a compulsion to paint turbulent images of rising water--hauntings that she can't explain. She knows that she was adopted and that her birth family's medical records can be found in Charnwood, England, so she impulsively travels to Charnwood to search for clues to her distress. There she finds a picturesque village and family connections far closer than she has dreamed. Thanks to some persistent snooping, the help of handsome young widower Richard Barton and a flood that conveniently allows her to replay her past, Lisa is able to piece together a picture of the trauma that haunts her and, in the process, build the foundations of a more fulfilling future. In this pleasant read, Bowden ably depicts the life of a family--and a town--twisted by secrets, guilt and suspicion. Still, much of her suspense plot feels formulaic and the romance is only thinly evoked. (Dec.)