Everything in Its Place

Austin school principal Bobbie Strickland has her hands full in Blackboard fave Evelyn Palfrey's Everything in Its Place: her daughter, Darlene, is a mess, so Bobbie is raising her granddaughter, Monee; then her elderly neighbor is beaten and robbed under mysterious circumstances. With all this, she can barely make time for handsome divorc Raymond Caldwell. Despite occasionally tepid dialogue, the plot equal parts family drama, mystery and romance contains plenty of surprising twists, and the story is delivered with a sure hand. There are enough issues for a week of Oprah shows (parenting, fidelity, religious hypocrisy, substance and sexual abuse) but Palfrey (Dangerous Dilemmas) incorporates them all with a minimum of melodrama.