NOBODY KNOWS: A Novel

Balancing compelling characters and intricate plotting in her trademark beach read style, Clark's suspense-filled latest finds 39-year-old television reporter Cassie Sheridan wracked with guilt over her part in a young rape victim's suicide. Named in a wrongful death suit and demoted to the Miami bureau after 15 years as a Washington, D.C., power player, Cassie rues the sacrifices that cost her her marriage and her relationship with her teenage daughter. While covering an impending hurricane, the newswoman befriends Vincent, a latchkey 11-year-old who's just discovered a severed hand on the sandy shores of Siesta Key. The author's own background as a writer and producer at CBS News, paired with reader Tunno's convincing rendition of downtrodden Cassie, imparts vocational verisimilitude. Tunno also skillfully narrates the naïve Vincent, who steals a ring from the corpse to help his impoverished family and unwittingly puts himself and Cassie in the path of a serial killer whose M.O. includes wearing a grease paint clown mask. But despite the professional unabridged recording and fast pacing, translation to audio doesn't fair as well when Tunno is called on to voice a pornography mogul or the killer; she's unable to capture the grittier, masculine aspects of the book. Based on the St. Martin's Press hardcover (Forecasts, July 1). (July)