Silence on Cold River

Dunn (the Hightower Trilogy) makes good use of the perspectives of multiple characters throughout her clever thriller debut. In 1989, in rural Tarson, Ga., rookie defense attorney Ama Shoemaker manages to get Michael Walton, a client charged with animal cruelty, acquitted, despite the mountain of evidence against him. Creeped out by Michael, Ama asks him to make sure that their paths never cross again, but Michael has other plans. In 2006, Ama is jogging near Tarson when she injures her ankle. A stranger offers to help her but then assaults and abducts her. Dunn wastes little time revealing that the stranger is actually Michael, and alternates Michael’s new encounter with Ama with the search for her conducted by Martin Locklear, a police detective seeking professional redemption, and Eddie Stevens, a man driven to consider suicide by the disappearance of his 18-year-old daughter. The various strands mesh well by the end. Fans of Lisa Unger will be pleased. [em]Agent: Rosie Jonker, Ann Rittenberg Literary. (May) [/em]