Secret Admirer

Mediocre writing almost sinks MacDonald's (Mother's Day and Little Sister) awkward hybrid of mystery and romance. Laura Reed is a renowned children's-book writer whose personal life is just as fulfilling as her professional one. She lives in a perfectly restored Victorian home in a relentlessly quaint town on the New Jersey shore with her loving husband, Jimmy, and their five-year-old son. But it all ends on New Year's Eve when an intruder conks her on the head and shoots Jimmy to death in their bed. Because she was unconscious, an hour passed before the police were called; Laura becomes the prime suspect, but the prosecutor doesn't have enough evidence to arrest her. While law enforcement hunts, Laura goes into seclusion for five months. On her first day out, she happens to meet Ian Hunter, a lone sailor who recently and tragically lost his own wife and son. They quickly become involved. Was their meeting chance--or something more sinister? Despite a shamelessly contrived plot and barely believable characters, MacDonald keeps her readers guessing until a conclusion that may make the preceding worth wading through. (Aug.)