Hidden Doors, Secret Rooms

In Eubanks's lackluster thriller, retired musician John Mills finds a frightened child and her badly mauled mother, Jillian Braedon, outside his Arizona home during a blizzard. But Jillian harbors a powerful secret, and John is soon plunged headlong into a knotty conspiracy%E2%80%94one that causes him to be pursued by the FBI, but that may also lead to his redemption. Although she provides all the elements of a page-turner, Eubanks's novel will fail to thrill readers. At times, the science underpinning the narrative seems foggy, while the book's romantic interludes are stilted and many of its characters underdeveloped. The story's conclusion strains credulity and results in a novel that doesn't live up to its potential.