cover image Praying for Time

Praying for Time

Carlene Thompson. Severn, $28.99 (256p) ISBN 978-0-7278-8984-3

At the start of this pedestrian thriller from Thompson (Just a Breath Away), 19-year-old Vanessa Everly and her 15-year-old sister, Roxanne, are heading back after a midnight swim to the family mansion outside Everly Cliffs, Ore., when Vanessa is struck on the head. As she lies incapacitated, she hears “her sister’s desperate screams fading down the lonely beach.” Eight years later, Vanessa, now a TV actor in Los Angeles, remains haunted by her sister’s kidnapping. No trace of Roxanne has ever been found, nor has a suspect been arrested. Then Vanessa receives a call from the Everly Cliffs sheriff, who informs her that Roxanne has turned up—“thin, scratched, dirty, and unconscious”—on the front porch of their family home. Vanessa races back to Everly Cliffs, where she soon becomes immersed in a melodramatic quagmire of murder and romance. Awkward prose doesn’t help (“She needed to work out more, she thought as she tried to keep her mouth shut although she wanted to pant”). Those looking for surprises will be disappointed. Agent: Pamela Ahern, Ahern Agency. (July)