Ordinary Justice

Despite its many flaws, this debut novel's openly feminist depiction of battered women in rural America is surprisingly compelling. After witnessing her best friend's murder by an abusive spouse, Zoe Kergulin left her well-paying job as a security expert with the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., for the solitude of the West Virginia hills, hoping to find a measure of tranquillity. But three years later, the pattern of violence seems to be repeating itself when Zoe's skittish neighbor, Susan Rourke, disappears, leaving behind a trailer spattered with blood. Zoe, who had suspected Susan was running away from domestic violence, fears the young woman may be dead, and the small town of Sinksville quickly organizes a search party for her. The body they find is not Susan's, however. It's that of her husband, who has been killed with a shotgun and dumped in a ravine. Police suspicion naturally falls upon Susan, and Zoe, intending to help protect her neighbor, decides to join their manhunt. Then another local woman goes missing, and her irate husband terrorizes several citizens, causing Zoe to take a closer look at the secretive inhabitants of Sinksville, particularly the disingenuous proprietors of the town's historic inn, Ruth and Ardell. Labovitz's transitions between scenes can be unpleasantly abrupt, and she doesn't delve deeply enough into Zoe's background, leaving her heroine's motivations vague. Nonetheless, her story has a good momentum that even a convoluted subplot can't stymie, and the novel's solution packs an unexpected punch. (May)