Color of Lies

The loss of a "nuclear" bomb off Puerto Rico during WWII brings strange consequences in this overwrought exploration of a stressed community in Washington State decades later. Twenty-six-year-old Maria de la Via, visiting her Aunt JoAnne, quickly discovers that neighbor Molly McCain is a whole lot worse than unpleasant. A long-standing spat over property rights threatens to escalate into a fight involving all of Concrete, Wash., as animal deaths and the dumping of toxic materials raise suspicions about long-buried secrets. This timely theme is hampered by wooden dialogue and minimal character development: Molly is presented as evil incarnate, and Maria's search for answers predictably finds a parallel in a developing romance. Rolnick's overriding message is that acquiescing to evil and bullying immerses individuals and community in a circle of lies; her heavy-handed, frequently bombastic dialogue reduces most of her characters to uninteresting stick fixtures. A less rigid delineation of good and evil might have given more focus to this examination of a community struggling to throw off its passivity in the face of an emergency.