No Duress

Linda Stewart's worst nightmare has just come true. A senior counselor at a health center for teens, Linda is accustomed to advising birth mothers and adoptive mothers of their legal rights, but she is unprepared when 17-year-old Marylou Rogin demands custody of the baby she gave birth to five months earlier and whom Linda has adopted. Linda relinquishes the baby without a fight, too shocked to notice the puzzling aspects of Marylou's behavior until it is too late: the next day Marylou and the baby are found dead. Incensed at the police department's perfunctory investigation, Linda determines to discover who has killed her child. Linda narrowly misses being hit by a bullet, but not until the murder of Marylou's best friend does the counselor realize just how dangerous her mission is. The villains will be obvious to even neophyte armchair sleuths, but Borgenicht's ( Undue Influence ) perceptive comments on troubling social issues generate plenty of tension. (Aug.)