Murder, child sexual abuse, drug and alcohol addiction, kinky sex and more seethe under the homey veneer of the little East Texas town of Maryvale in Strieiber's ungainly second novel (after 2004's An Invisible Woman
). Social worker Sally Hopkins leaves her Houston-based job and heads "home" to Maryvale to lick her wounds and try to find peace in the only place she ever felt happy in her rough childhood. At her request, Sally's Uncle Ed, the local sheriff, gives her a job and a chance to contribute her expertise, though this expertise seems to derive from elementary psychology texts rather than experience or insight. In addition, Sally's raw emotional baggage makes her an unlikely choice as either a social worker or (an untrained) member of the sheriff's department. Her rapid rise is even more unlikely as her first bumbling attempts to investigate a series of animal mutilations gets off to an inauspicious start. Most readers should be well ahead of Strieiber's dithering heroine in figuring out most of the lies and secrets behind Maryvale's placid exterior. Agent, Russell Galen. (Nov.)
