Undertow

Bostonian Rayna Martin takes daughter Teesha and Teesha's three best friends out on a boat for Teesha's birthday, an event that ends in tragedy when one girl, Christina Haynes, drowns. Christina, the daughter of influential senator Rudolph Haynes, is white; the other three girls are middle and working-class African-American. Senator Haynes is bent on revenge for his daughter's death, and he pressures the DA into charging Rayna with racially motivated murder. Defense attorney David Cavanaugh is determined that Rayna's innocence will win the day, as is tough, charismatic Sara Davis, a friend of Rayna's who holds her attraction to David in check for the sake of the case. While Senator Haynes is a caricature of a privileged ruthless conservative, his wife—who is born to privilege and has chosen the easy way her entire life—shines as she finds all of her assumptions and choices called into question. Bauer (the nom de plume of Australian TV exec Kimberly Scott) credibly navigates multiple segments of Boston society as she fashions a complex plot from simple elements. (July)